FURTHER NOTES ON NEW JERSEY FISHES. 129 



Raja ocellata (Mitchill). 

 Big Spotted Skate. 



Head 3/4 in body, measured from tip of snout to base of ven- 

 tral behind; snout i^ in head; eye 7; width of mouth 2; inter- 

 nasal space 2^ ; bony interorbital region 2^ ; interspiracle region 

 2Vio5 space between anterior pair of gill-openings 1^/10; space 

 between posterior pair of gill-openings i ^ ; space between origins 

 of ventrals iVtJ greatest width of ventral, to end of anterior 

 lobe, 15^ ; base of first dorsal 2 V? ; base of second dorsal 2^ ; 

 length of disk from tip of snout to tips of anterior ventral lobes 

 less than its width by space equal to that from tip of snout to 

 front of mouth; tail measured from point opposite posterior 

 basal edges of ventrals, a little less than length of disk, or for 

 a space about equal to half of snout. Disk very broad. Head 

 well depressed. Snout firm, tip but little flexible and median 

 fontanel level. Eye near last third in length of head, elongate 

 and depressed above. Canthus well depressed. Mouth trans- 

 verse below, dental edge well convex, or slightly double convex. 

 Teeth about 60 series in upper jaw. Lips thin, upper scarcely free 

 and only edges of posterior flaps fringed. Nostrils large, just out- 

 side exposed width of mouth, sending back a groove to corner of 

 mouth and curving posteriorly towards its fellow behind this. 

 Interorbital space broad, depressed concavely and more or less 

 flattened medianly. Gill-openings rather small. Spiracles broad, 

 their width about Ys of eye. Body very roughened, with rather 

 large posteriorly-directed thorns above, especially submarginally 

 on disk. On anterior part of disk they are much smaller, and 

 reach their greatest development on posterior lobe. All along 

 anterior lateral margin of disk a narrow band of minute asper- 

 ities. Tip of snout and each ramus of nostrils and supraorbital 

 ridges covered with rather large thorny tubercles. A median 

 series of minute thorns begins just after spiracles and persists 

 till opposite origins of ventrals, after which entire median upper 

 surface of tail is smooth on longitudinal depression to origin 

 of first dorsal. Beginning on back anteriorly, and shortly after 



9 MU 



