436 THE PLAGIOSTOMIA. 



Width of disk nearly twice the distance from snout to vent, anterior margins 

 convex, posterior concave, outer angles acute. Snout two to three times as long 

 as the nasal valves, rounded in front. Skull broad, depressed, subtruncate; 

 fontanel rather narrow, tapering moderately backward, rounded behind. An- 

 terior nasal valves confluent in a broad flap, free in front of the teeth, rounded at 

 the angles, fringed on the hinder margin, with a slight notch in the middle. 

 Median row of teeth four to five times as broad as long. Rostral fins rather 

 small, not continuous with the pectorals, narrowing forward, rounded at end of 

 snout. Length of ventrals more than twice the width, outer angle rounded, 

 hind margin broadly rounded from inner end of base to outer angle. Dorsal 

 subtriangular, highest in the middle, posterior border nearly straight, oblique; 

 fin longest on the base, end little behind the ends of the ventrals, origin above 

 ends of ventral bases, little or no free margin behind the end of the base. Snout 

 to mouth cleft equal twice the distance between the nostrils. 



A specimen from Hong Kong measures 142 inches across the disk and 7? 

 inches from snout to vent. No horn on the orbit. No caudal spine. Tail 

 about four times the length of the disk. 



Back brown, greenish or bronzed in life, with whitish spots over the disk, 

 in cases fused into narrow transverse bands. 



Red Sea; China; East Indies. 



Aetomylaeus nichofii. 



Zee-vleermuis Nieuhof, 1682, Gedenk. reize., 1, p. 278, fig.; Willughby, 1G86, Pise, p. 6, pi. 10, f. 3. 



Raia nichofii Schneider, 1801, Bloch Ichth., p. 364 {niehofii p. 579). 



Mookarah tenkec Russell, 1803, Coromandel fishes, 1, p. 4; pi. 7. 



Raiafasciata Shaw, 1804, Zool., 5, p. 286, pi. 143. 



Aelohalus nichofii Blainv., 1816, Bull. Soc. philom., p. 112. 



Myliobalis nieuhowii Cuv., 1817, Reg. anim., 2, p. 138. 



Mjliohalis nieuhofii Muller & Henle, 1841, Plagios., p. 117; T. Cantor, 1849, Malay, fishes, p. 432; 

 Bleeker, 1852, Verh. Bat. gen., 24, Plagios., p. 85; Dumeril, 1S65, Elasm., p. 638; Gunth., 1870, 

 Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 491; Jord. & Fowler, 1903, Proc. U. S. nat. mus., 26, p. 604; Annan- 

 dale, 1909, Mem. Ind. mus., 2, p. 51. 



Aetomylaeus nichofii Garman, 1908, Bull. M. C. Z., 53, p. 253. 



Width of disk twice the length of the body. Distance from cleft of mouth 

 to end of snout one and one half times the distance between the nostrils. Snout 

 shorter than that of A. milvus, much less produced, tapering more rapidly. 

 Rostral fins not continuous with the pectorals at the side of the head. On 

 individuals of the same length, the snout of A. nichofii has about the same length 

 as that of Myliobatis aquila but is much more pointed and lacks the flanges from 

 rostral fins to pectorals. The width of each pectoral is little more than its 



