58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



31' Myliobatis freminvillei (Le Sneur) 

 Eagle Ray 



MylioMtiH firminvillei Le Sueitb, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. IV. 111. 1824; 



I)E Kay, N. Y. Fauna. Fishes, 376, 1842. 

 Myliohafis acuta Stoker, Hist. Fisli. Mass. 2G0. pi. XXXIX. tig. 4, 1867. 

 MylUfbalis freminvillei Jordats' & Gilbert, Bull. 16, TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 51, 



1883; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47. V. S. Nat. Mus. SO. 1896; Smith. 



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



Disk broader tlian lon<;-, width to length boaring the ratio of 

 5 to 3; width of dislc 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 Yalve not deeply notched. Reaches a length of 4 feet. 

 Body and head above, reddish brown; tail lighter at th(^ base, 

 but nearly black toward the ti]: 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 Amde 

 Morris that about Aug. 20, 1887, oft' 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. Ayres found an individual 

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

 of Xatiiral Hisfori/, 4:290, pi. 13. Dr Storer received ])ortions of 

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

 not veiy ((imnKiu at Woods Hole Mass., but taken in small num- 

 bers every year in traps. 



Genus uhixoptera Kuhl 

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

 snout more oi- less emarginate on the median line; cephalic fin 

 emai'ginate and placed on a phme b<'lo\v the level of the pector- 

 als, the snout thus ap])earing four-lobed; free border of the 

 nasal valve not emarginate; Icclli in o to 2t) rows, the median 



