58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



32 Myliobatis freminvillei (Le Sueur) 

 Eagle Ray 



Myliobatis freminvillei LE SUEUK, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pliila. IV, 111, 1824; 



DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 376, 1842. 



Myliobatis acuta STOKER, Hist. Fish. Mass. 269, pi. XXXIX, fig. 4, 1867. 

 Myliobatis freminvillei JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 51, 



1883; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 89, 1896; SMITH, 



Bull. U. S. F. C. XVII, 90, 1898. 



Disk broader than long, width to length bearing the ratio of 

 5 to 3; width of disk equal to length of tail. Diameter of eye 

 equals about one fourth of the interorbital distance; spiracles 

 behind the eyes and one and one half times* as long. Width of 

 mouth one half its distance from tip of snout. Free edge of the 

 nasal valve not deeply notched. Reaches a length of 4 feet. 

 Body and head above, reddish brown; tail lighter at the base, 

 but nearly black toward the tip; lower parts whitish. 



The species is not uncommon, from Cape Cod to Brazil. It 

 probably feeds on mollusks. 



It was reported to me by men of the menhaden steamer Annie 

 Morris that about Aug. 20, 1887, off Hereford inlet, they saw 

 schools of sting rays at the surface " flopping along like geese." 

 The schools were large enough to have filled a menhaden seine. 

 The rays were said to have two spines on the tail. 



Le Sueur's description was based on a Rhode Island specimen. 

 De Kay copied briefly from Le Sueur, and placed the fish among 

 the extra-limital species. William O. Ay res found an individual 

 at Brook Haven L. I., which he described in the Boston Journal 

 of Natural History, 4 :290, pi. 13. Dr Storer received portions of 

 a specimen from Holmes' Hole Mass. Dr Smith records it as 

 not very common at Woods Hole Mass., but taken in small num- 

 bers every year in traps. 



Genus RHIXOPTERA Kuhl 



Disk broader than long, its anterior angles more or less acute; 

 snout more or less emarginate on the median line; cephalic fin 

 emarginate and placed on a plane below the level of the pector- 

 als, the snout thus appearing four-lobed; free border of the 

 nasal valve not emarginate; teeth in 5 to 20 rows, the median 



