ZANOBATUS SCHOENLEINII. 291 



times in its distance from the bases of the ventrals, one and one half times in its 

 distance from the second. Second dorsal reaching the caudal. Tail slender, 

 longer than the body; dermal folds thin and wide; caudal fir.s about equally 

 developed, narrow, supracaudal little longer. Scales minute. Tubercles with 

 strong compressed backward-directed cusps in a median and two lateral series 

 on back and tail, in a group of three or more above the end of the rostral carti- 

 lage, in a band of several to five or more tubercles in width along the forward 

 half of each pectoral, in a series on each orbital ridge, and in two pairs on each 

 shoulder. 



Color nearly uniform brown, whitish beneath and at each side of the rostral 

 ridges. The posterior lateral edges of the pectorals are brown on the lower sides. 



Viviparous. 



Off the coasts of California. 



Zanobatus, gen. nov. 



Disk wider than long, subround; tail slender, nearly half the total length. 

 Snout short, blunt; rostral cartilage small, tapering gradually. Nostrils trans- 

 verse, narrow, interspace wide; anterior valves confluent, posterior with inner 

 section large, reaching the mouth. Spiracle large, without a fold. Fins rounded. 

 Pectorals very broad, separated at the end of the snout. Ventrals close to the 

 pectorals. Dorsals small, far behind the ventrals. Caudal small, rounded. 



Compared with Discobatus this genus possesses more affinities with the 

 Raiae and not so many with the Narcaciontidae. Though quite as closely 

 related to the Rhinobatidae as that genus, Zanobatus is readily distinguished 

 by the rostrum, nasal valves, and the caudal. 



Zanobatus schoenleinii. 



Platyrhina schoenleinii Muller & Henle, 1841, Plagios., p. 125, pi. 45; Dumeril, 1865, Elasm., p. 577; 



GtJNTH., 1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 471. 

 Discobatus schoenleinii Garman, 1881, Proc. U. S. nat mus., 3, p. 523 (name). 



Disk subcircular, wider than long; snout blunt, length little greater than 

 the distance between the outer edges of the nostrils, or less than twice the width 

 of the mouth, angle nearly 120° in front. Nostrils narrow, half as wide as their 

 distance apart; anterior valves united across the internarial space; posterior 

 valves with inner section as wide as both outer section and lobe and extend- 

 ing nearly to the angle of the mouth. Mouth nearly straight; teeth small. 



