RAIA BATIS. 331 



sharp (male), slender, in |f rows. Tail about one third of the total length. 

 Dorsals separated by a narrow space with a spine. Back roughened by minute 

 spines and tubercles; a striate-based tubercle in front of and one behind each 

 eye, one behind each spiracle, two — one behind the other — on each shoulder, 

 and a nearly complete median series (of 27) from the head to the second dorsal. 

 Lower surfaces smooth. 



Upper parts uniform dark greyish brown; lower white with large blotches 

 of brown, nearly alike on the two sides. 



Type, a male of 20 inches in length, taken off the north coasts of Spitzbergen, 

 in 80° N. Lat., at a depth of 459 fathoms. 



RaIA BATIS. 



Rata undulata sive cinerea Rondelet, 1554, Pise, p. 346. 



Rata varia Artedi, 1738, Ichthyologia, Syn., p. 102, Gen. p. 73, no. 9. 



Raia batis Linne, 1758, Syst., 1, p. 231; 1766, Syst., 1, p. 395; Bloch, 1784, Fische Deutschl., 3, p. 54, 

 pi. 79; Bonnaterre, 1788, Ichth., p. 2, pi. 2, f. 6; Gmelin, 1789, Linne Syst., 1, p. 1505; Wal- 

 BAUM, 1792, Artedi, p. 531; Schneider, 1801, Bloch Ichth., p. 369; Risso, 1810, Ichth. Nice, p. 3; 

 Hollberg, 1822, Goth. vet. Handl., p. 21; Fleming, 1828, Brit, anim., p. 171; Faber, 1829, 

 Fische Islands, p. 33; Jenyns, 1835, Man., p. 510; Fries, 1838, Vet. akad. Handl., p. 158, pi. 3, 

 f. 6; MtJLLER & Henle, 1841, Plagios., p. 146; Kroyer, 1853, Danm. fiske, 3, p. 978; Nilsson, 

 1855, Fisk. Skand., 4, p. 739; Malm, 1857, Ofvers. Vet. akad. Forhl., 1, p. 193; Dumeril, 1865, 

 Elasm., p. 563; Gxjnth., 1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 463; Moreau, 1881, Poiss. France, 1, 

 p. 409; Day, 1884, Brit, fishes, 2, p. 336, pi. 166; Holt & Calderwood, 1895, Trans. Roy. Dublin 

 soc, new ser., 5, p. 385. 



Raia undulata Valmont, 1768, Diet, d'hist. nat., 3, p. 706. 



Skate Pennant, 1769, Zool., 3, p. 62; Yarrell, 1836, Brit, fishes, 2, p. 421. 



Raia laevis, alba Duhamel, 1782, Traite, 4, p. 284, pi. 11. 



Dipturus batis Rafinesque, 1810, Caratteri, p. 16; Indtce, p. 48. 



Raia gaimardi, Val., 1847, Gaim. voy. Isl. & Groenl. poiss., pi. 2, 3; Dumeril, 1865, Elasm., p. 565. 



Raia leiobatos Gray, 1854, Gron. syst., p. 10. 



Laetnraia batis Malm, 1877, Goteb. och Bohus. fauna, p. 615. 



Shape similar to that of R. stahuliforis, Plate 22, fig. 2; disk hardly broader 

 than long, anterior angle nearly 90°; snout produced, blunted at the end; an- 

 terior margins slightly waved, little concave; outer angles blunted, hinder 

 broadly rounded. Mouth wide, nearly straight, width almost equal to half its 

 distance from the end of the snout; teeth small, crowns depressed with a sharp 

 cusp directed inward, in about 56 rows in a specimen of thirty inches in length. 

 Parts of the back and the top of the tail are roughened with small spines ; young 

 with a spine in front of and one behind each eye. Tail nearly half of the total 

 length, with strong lateral folds, with a median series of small compressed 

 tubercles and, in the female, with another series along each lateral fold. Dorsal 

 fins separated by a space with a spine. Total length of specimen, from Triest, 



