410 Dr. Bancroft on Jamaican Fishes, See. 



the end, because it appears to be a rare fish here : for no other has I 

 believe been caught since that one. It is highly probable that the green 

 colour may be entirely removed ; but even if this should not be effected, 

 there remained enough of the original purplish colour on the fish's back 

 to shoM^ what it formerly was at the time I put it into the breaker. In 

 case however that the original colour should have suffered any change 

 from the action of the spirit in the cask, 1 venture to send inclosed one 

 or two attempts of mine at a figure of the fish. They were meant solely 

 as memoranda for my own private use, and were made hastily during 

 uneasy moments ; and their defective execution would have deterred me 

 from submitting them to the severe scrutiny of Zoologists, had not the 

 hope that their fidelity as to colouring and as to shape and dimensions 

 might palliate their defects, at length overcome my objections. This 

 specimen appeared to me, when taken out of the brine, to have shrunk ; 

 it originally measured 1 7 inches from the apex of die frontal flappers, or 

 fins, to that of the ventral fins, and 28 inches in extreme breadth across 

 the wings ; the tail being 2 1 inches long. About twelve months ago 

 another of the same species, a male, was sent to me ; but I had been 

 called out of town for three or four days, and when I returned home the 

 fish was so putrid as to be useless. Its dimensions however were rather 

 larger ; its length, measured as above, was 32 inches, its extreme breadth 

 44 inches, and its tail 27 inches. This individual had the male ap- 

 pendages, as Colonel Montagu has called them, arising on the interior 

 edge of the ventral fins, very distinct ; I have reason to consider it as an 

 adult. 



Though I have taken notes of the characters of this Fish, yet I abstain 

 from sending them, as they would be useless to Mr. Bennett, who I hope 

 will continue his favour to me and mine, and take this and the other 

 Fishes now sent under his own protection. He will observe in it one 

 deviation that is perhaps unique in the Ray tribe, and will therefore serve 

 as a marked specific character, in the position of its spiracles. There 

 are clearly none on the dorsal surface, whence I was led to suppose them 

 wanting, as in some Sharks ; at last however I discovered them in a 

 groove immediately under the anterior edge of the base of the pectoral 



