FAMILY EAIID^ PASTINACA. • 373 



R. eglanteria, Bosc. (Les. lb. Vol. 4, p. 103.) Reddish, sprinkled with small spots. A longitudinal 

 series of 9 - 12 simple spines on each side of the lateral fin. Width 10 inches; length nineteen. 

 Delaware Bay and Southern Coast. 



GENUS PASTINACA. Cuvier. 



Tail slender, without fins, hut armed with one or more long spines, which are dentated on 

 the edges. 



THE WHIP STING-RAY. 



Pastinaca hastata. 

 pl.vte lxv. fig. 214. (female ) 

 R. centroura? Prickly-railed Sling-ray. MiTCHiLL,* Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 479 (male?) 



Characteristics. Uniform olive-brown above ; white beneath. Upper surface partially smooth. 

 Tail longer than the body, and armed with two or more spines. Width 

 of the body three feet. Length of body and tail five to eight feet. 



Description. Body quadrilateral, rounded on the pectoral angles ; its transverse and longi- 

 tudinal diameters nearly equal ; its vertical diameter, in the thickest part, between si.x and 

 seven inches. Snout subacutely pointed, and slightly salient from the lateral margins. Eyes 

 obliquely oval, nine inches and a half from the tip of the snout, and seven inches apart. Tem- 

 poral orifices oval, oblique, contiguous to the eyes, and an inch and a half long. Nostrils 

 small, five inches apart ; the nasal lobes sinuous, truncate. Teeth small, flat, lozenge-shaped, 

 and arranged in quincunx. The upper surface of the body smooth, and covered with a dark- 

 colored mucilaginous slime. From a point slightly anterior to the centre of the body, com- 

 mences a triple longitudinal series of small horny tubercles, descending along and on each side 

 of the medial line for a short distance on the anterior portion of the tail. Tail long, cylindrical, 

 rough, tapering and flexible towards the end. At the distance of thirteen inches from the 

 base of the tail, on its upper surface, is a small flattened pointed spine, with a row of while 

 acute teeth on its edges, directed downward when the spine is erect. Three inches posterior 

 to this, is another spine of a similar shape and armature, but more formidable from its length, 

 which is five inches, with a deep groove on one side and a corresponding keel on the other ; 

 posterior to this large spine, is another an inch and a half long, and similar to the preceding. 



* I make this reference with due reserve, for the following embraces all that Mitchill has said upon the subject : 

 " Raia centrodra, PricUy-tailcd Sting-ray. A very large species, found on the coast of Long island, with a tail of five 

 feet or more in length ; covered all over with prickly shields or scales, and armed on its upper side with two naked 

 bones of four inches long, inversely serrated." 

 I find no other notice of this species among his multifarious contributions to the magazines of the day. The prickly 

 shields in the above note can refer only to the tail. 



