The Spotted Eagle Ray. 309 



does Steindachner (1901). Moreover, Evermann and Marsh (1900) and 

 Jenkins (1904) write it -tus, as do Gilbert and Starks (1904). Nevertheless, 

 one year later Jordan and Evermann (1905) and Jordan and Thompson 

 (1905) again take up Cantor's generic term Stoasodon, retaining narinari as 

 the specific name. However, in the same year was published Jordan's great 

 "Guide to the Study of Fishes," in which the name is written -tus, while 

 two years later he and Seale name the Philippine form Stoasodon. 



Miranda Ribeiro (1907), who, if one may judge by his table of synonyms, 

 has gone into the question of synonymy more carefully than any one else, 

 uses the correct name Aetobatus, referring it directly to Blainville's paper of 

 1816. This name is also used by Coles (1910, 1913). Not so, however, 

 Annandale (1909-1910) and Gunther (1910), since they retain the Muller 

 and Henle terminology. However, all these names seem to refer to the 

 same spotted eagle ray, which, if there is any virtue in priority, must be 

 designated Aetobatus narinari. 



DOUBTFUL SYNONYMS. 



It is now necessary to take up the descriptions of certain rays the names 

 of which have been declared by certain authors to be synonymous with the 

 ray originally named by Marcgrave, Narinari, but about the correctness 

 of which much doubt exists. 



First of these is Raja guttata, which is ordinarily ascribed to Shaw, but 

 which was first described by Bloch and Schneider in 180 1 in the following 

 words: "Body ashy-gray, black, guttated and spotted, head heart-shaped, 

 tail finned and twice as long as the body." This ray they make identical 

 with Marcgrave's Brazilian ray Jabebireba or Jabebirete, which, however, 

 is not an eagle ray at all. 



Raja guttata, the spotted ray of Shaw (1804), is by many authors identi- 

 fied as A. narinari, and Shaw himself says that it is identical with Marc- 

 grave's Narinari and with Russell's Eel Tenkee. His figure is reproduced 

 herein as figure 20, plate viii, and his description may be found on page 

 313 of this paper. Inspection of this figure and comparison with that which 

 forms the frontispiece to this paper, and with any other figure which has 

 been identified in this article with A. narinari, will, I believe, show that no 

 allowance for bad drawing can account for the great discrepancies. Later 

 I shall show that this figure is not original with Shaw, but that he copied 

 a mirror image of Lacepede's figure labeled "La Raie Aigle"; and that 

 Lacepede in turn copied an unpublished figure of Commerson's of an eagle 

 ray which he had figured from Madagascar waters. With these facts before 

 him the present writer rejects Raja guttata Shaw as a synonym for A . narinari. 



It is possible that Quoy and Gaimard's (1824) Raja quinqueaculata may, 

 as Jordan and Evermann (1896) and many other taxonomists think, be 

 identified with A . narinari. The points in favor of such identity are : (i) the 

 elongated snout curved at the tip; (2) body above dark brown in color and 

 sprinkled with round blue spots; (3) tail, which "appears to have been cut 



