The Spotted Eagle Ray. 249 



pliers. However, in the above-named year, a Swede, Bengt Anders Eu- 

 phrasen, described and figured a specimen of this ray which had been taken 

 at the island of St. Bartholomew, one of the West Indies at that time be- 

 longing to Sweden. He calls this fish Raja narinari, thus fixing the specific 

 name. He refers to Willughby, whose description and figure he criticizes, 

 seemingly in ignorance of Marcgrave, from whom Willughby copied both 

 figure and description. 



Euphrasen's figure, which was drawn in Sweden from a preserved 

 specimen, is herewith reproduced (fig. 5, plate iii), but modified slightly 

 in one unessential detail. In the original figure, the long tail hangs down 

 straight save for a fish-hook-like curve at the tip; in the reproduction, for 

 the sake of economy in space, it is curled to the left as shown; the length, 

 however, i? correct. Euphrasen describes his specimen as follows: 



Head prominent, compressed, in form like a toad's, on top 2 pits placed transversely. 

 Mouth ventral as in its kind, transverse, teeth few and closely crowded. Eyes lateral, of 

 medium size when compared with the head. Ears (aures) above the neck, or at the base of 

 the head, with apertures round, and a little larger than the eyes. Spiracles 5, under the 

 throat on both sides as in its kind. 



Body flat, very broad, ending laterally in acute angles, the margin feathered (pinnis). 

 Above browni (blue) with round white spots, in diameter about the size of the thumb, 

 scattered about; beneath white. Anal fins one on each side at the base of the long tail, 

 reaching to the base of the spine on the anterior part of the tail. Dorsal fin small, sub- 

 triangular, situated on the base of the tail. Spines 2, oblique, dorsally placed behind the 

 fin, compressed, retrorsally barbed, the posterior double the length of the anterior. Tail 

 whiplash-like, compressed, attenuate from base to apex, without fin, 3 times longer than body. 



In Walbaum's edition of Artedi's "Bibliotheca Ichthyologica," part in 

 (1792), the former quotes the name Raja narinari from Euphrasen's paper 

 above named, refers to Willughby and Marcgrave, and gives this brief 

 description: " Body smooth, steel colored above, with numerous white spots." 



About this time, i. e., the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century, a number of ichthyologists include narinari in 

 their lists of rays without adding anything to our knowledge of the fish 

 and some of them fall into the grievous error of applying the name to rays 

 which are not even eagle rays much less Aetobatids. Bloch in volume in of 

 his "Ichthyologie" (1786) appends the name narinari to an ordinary sting 

 ray with a long tail, and which he expressly states has many rows of teeth 

 in its jaws. Other cases might be cited, but to no purpose. 



In the closing years of his life, Bloch had outlined and made some progress 

 on a great ichthyological synopsis after the plan of Linnaeus's "Systema 

 Naturae." After his death, this important work was brought to completion 

 by J. G. Schneider (Bloch and Schneider, 1801). Beginning on page 361 

 we find the description of Raja narinari. This I believe to be the work^of 

 Schneider for two reasons; first because in Bloch's other works there is 

 nowhere found any description of A. narinari, and in the second place 

 because the account under discussion is written in the first person. 



1 Euphrasen uses the word chalybeum from chalybs, meaning steel or Iron, but as his figure is a sepia- 

 brown it may be that the color of his fish was brown. 



