It may be noted that nearly all of the above-mentioned are 

 fishes of more or less e Uble value, while some are exceedingly 

 important. On the other hand, fishermen and waterside folk 

 generally, will be very sorry to learn that we have two more of 

 those abominable pests of our waters the Stingrays than we 

 had previously reckoned upon ; one of them Dasyatis sephen 

 being exceedingly dangerous. This Ray, it may be mentioned, 

 appears to ba quite common in the estuaries of some of our 

 Northern rivers, and there is no reason why it should not ulti- 

 mately be turned to account in an economic way, as its skin is 

 known to be specially adapted for being turned into a very fine 

 shagreen leather,* 



FAMILY DASYATID.E (Stingrays). 

 Dasyatis uarnak (Forskal). Banded-tailed Stingray. 



A small example of this dangerous Stingray, measuring 305 

 mm. (12 inches) across the disk, was received during November, 

 1903, from the estuary of the Clarence River. 



This species occurs commonly on parts of the Queensland 

 coast, and is very widely distributed. Referring to its occurrence 

 in the waters of India, Day states! that " wounds from their 

 caudal spines are much dreaded. In one instance, an old man 

 was admitted into the Civil Hospital in Cochin for mortification 

 of the arm, due to a wound inflicted by one of these fish, which 

 he attempted to drag out of the sea into a boat : it wound its 

 tail round his arm and dragged its spine through the muscles 

 nearly down to the bone." Day further states that this species 

 attains the large size of " 5 feet or more across the disk." 



In our example (which is a male) from the Clarence River, the 

 disk is a little broader than long. The tail is three times the 

 Jength of the body. 



On account of the pretty banded appearance of the tail in this 

 species a feature which appears to be more pronounced than in 

 any of the allied forms I have applied to it the vernacular 

 name used above. 



* A fuller reference to this matter will be found in my recently-published 

 " Fishes of Australia" (1906), pp. 255, 256. 

 t Day : Fishes of India, p. 738. 



