320 THE PLAGIOSTOMIA. 



two fifths of the snout, nearly equal to width between orbits. Tail little longer 

 than the body, produced behind the second dorsal. Dorsals separated by a 

 space with spines. Back, tail, and lower edges of front margins, rough with 

 small spines. A small tubercle, or more than one, in front of each orbit, in cases 

 one or more behind it; one, sometimes more, on each shoulder; a median verte- 

 bral series of tubercles from head to second dorsal is frequently irregular or absent 

 above the body. The variations include from a nearly smooth form to one with 

 a lateral row of tubercles on each side of the tail. 



Present specimen of warm brown, profusely spotted with small spots of 

 darker brown and with five or six larger spots of white on the basal portion of 

 the pectorals. Translucent spaces of snout white, immaculate. Variations 

 range from nearly or quite uniform brown to much spotted with brown, to the 

 spotted with white, and to forms marked with large ocellate spots on the bases 

 of the pectorals. 



Total length 22?, length of disk 12 and greatest width 16 inches. 



Off southern coasts of England to France. 



Raia microcellata. 



Rata microcellata Montagu, 1815, Mem. Wern. soc, 2, p. 430; Fleming, 1828, Brit. anim.. p. 171; 

 Jenyns, 1835, Man., p. 515; McCoy, 1841, Ann. mag. nat. hist., 6, p. 407; Muller & Henle, 

 1841, Plagios., p. 142; White, 1851, Cat., p. 139; Dumeril, 1865, Elasm., p. 538; Moreau, 1881, 

 Poiss., France, p. 417; Day, 1884, Br. fishes, 2, p. 346, pi. 172; Pietschmann, 1906, Ann. k. k. 

 nat. Hofmuseums, 21, p. 90, pi. 5. 



Small-eyed ray Yarrell, 1836, Brit, fish., 2, p. 433. 



Painted ray, Couch, 1867, Brit, fishes, 1, p. 107, pi. 25. 



Disk rhomboid, broader than long, front angle and outer angles greater 

 than 90°, anterior margins nearly straight, hinder border broadly rounded, 

 snout slightly produced, blunt. Mouth wide, width about equal two thirds 

 of its distance from the end of the snout. Teeth flattened in the female, more 

 pointed in the male, in about 55 rows. Eyes small, in diameter equal to one 

 third of their distance apart, or one fifth of that from the end of the snout. 

 Spiracles larger than the eyes. Body and tail rough with small spines, or 

 nearly smooth. A median row of small tubercles on the tail, extending for- 

 ward on the body in cases, with or without a lateral row at each side. 



Greyish or brownish with spot? of brownish and of white, larger than the 

 eye, on the middle of the disk, and with narrow stripes near the margins and 

 somewhat parallel with the front and the hinder border. Lower surface white. 

 Reaches a length of more than two feet and a half. 



Off shores of southern England and of France. 



