338 THE PLAGIOSTOMIA. 



of the pectorals and on the tail. A triangular patch of strong spines appears in 

 front of the shoulder girdle, others are seen on each shoulder, and in one to 

 several rows at each side of the median line on the back. The vertebral line 

 is quite or nearly without tubercles; the tail has two to four rows at each side. 

 Males have not so many tubercles as the females ; their spines are more scattered, 

 and smooth spaces exist on the middle of the back, over the gills and above the 

 abdomen; they have the band of erectile tenacula near the outer angle of the 

 pectoral. Total length 19^, snout to abdominal pores 9|, and greatest width 

 11? inches. 



Back light greyish brown to very dark, clouded to nearly uniform, usually 

 spotted with small spots of darker, margins sometimes light. Colors darker 

 northward. 



Described and figured from adult specimens of about 19^ inches in length, 

 taken by Mr. George Nelson at Quincy, Massachusetts. 



Halifax to the Carolinas, abundant off New England and New York. 



Rata senta, 

 Plate 25, fig. 1. 



Raia senta Garman, 1885, Proc. U. S. nat. mus., 8, p. 43; Goode & Bean, 1896, Mem. M. C. Z., 22, 

 p. 508; JoRD. & EvERM., 1896, Bull. 47, U. S. nat. mus., p. 70. 



Disk resembling that of Raia eglanteria, Plate 23, but differing in the sharp 

 snout, the rounded outer angles, the slender pointed claspers, the separated 

 dorsals and the squamation. Snout sharp, in length one and three fourths 

 times the width of the mouth. Outer and hinder angles and margins broadly 

 rounded, anterior margins undulated. Mouth large, much curved, symphysis 

 of upper jaws deeply indented; teeth small in 38 rows, median larger and sharper. 

 Interorbital space deeply concave, width two sevenths of the length of the snout 

 from the eyes. Tail shorter than the disk, slender, moderately depressed, 

 lateral folds beginning far back near the dorsals. Dorsals small, united by a 

 membrane, with a rudimentary caudal behind the second. Claspers long, 

 slightly depressed, strong in the basal half, more slender distally, pointed. 



Back and top of tail rough with small spines; larger spines on the anterior 

 parts of the pectorals, along the outer margins, in a row on the orbital ridges, 

 a group on each shoulder and in a vertebral series from the back of the head to 

 about the middle of the tail, where they dwindle and disappear. Male with a 

 band of erectile tenacula near the outer angles. 



Described and figured here from an adult male secured b}^ Prof. Louis 



