292 Transactions.— Zoology. 
as regularly oval and marked by radiating lines or ridges. In Schneider’s 
R. glesne (fig. 8) the lobe is somewhat spatulate ; neither in this nor in the 
preceding figure is there any fringing membrane. In R. gladius the length 
of ray is represented as nearly four times the height of the body, in R. glesne 
as fully three and a half times, in the co Quay specimen as barely 
twice the height. 
In R. banksii, the pelvic rays are described by Hancock and Embleton 
as being fringed with membrane along the posterior (post-axial) edge : the 
same is shown in the Banksian figure of the Filey Bay specimen (fig. 5). 
Another specimen, probably of R. banksii, is described* as having ventrals 
three feet long and “ fringed with a thin membrane on two sides.” No 
fringe is either mentioned or figured by von Haast in R. pacificus. 
In the. Moeraki specimen the pelvie rays were both broken ; the longer 
of the two was 97 inches in length, about 4 inch thiek'at its proximal end, 
tapering gradually to the fracture and fringed postaxially for a considerable : 
distance by a delicate red membrane. 
In the form of the head the specimen under consideration resembles on 
the whole R. banksii; the ** forehead ” is, however, nearly straight instead 
of slightly concave as in that species and in R. gladius: in R. pacificus 
it is distinctly convex. There is also no difference of importance in the 
position and size of the eye, which, as in R. pacificus is slightly wider 
than high. The nostril (pl. xxiii., fig. 1, na) is apparently perfect on one side, 
and forms a single large oblique oval aperture, much larger and nearer to 
the eye than in R. banksii (fig. 8) : in R. gladius (fig. 6) two widely separated 
nasal apertures are shown in Cuvier's figure. In Haast's figure no nostril 
is shown, but this is very probably owing to the coarseness of the photo- 
lithograph, in which most of the details of the head are completely lost. 
From the same cause the form of the operculum cannot be made out in 
Haast’s large figure, but luckily the small outline figure shows it to have 
had a somewhat convex upper border produced into three points (pl. xxiv., 
fig. 1). The same is the case with R. gladius (fig. 6), with which, as with R. 
pacificus, my specimen agrees closely, differing mainly in the dorsal border 
of the operculum being, as a whole, less arched. As in R. gladius, too, the 
dorsal border of the opercular bone (op) is produced into two points, a third 
being formed by the anterior and a fourth by the posterior boundary of 
that border. The posterior boundary of the opercular is produced in the 
Moeraki specimen into a single point, which also marks the dorsal end of 
the sub-opercular: in R. gladius the latter bone apparently extends much 
further upwards. In R. banksii the opercular has an even border, its dorsal 
edge is somewhat concave and the sub-opercular is not indicated, having 
been mistaken by Hancock and Embleton for a branchiostegal. 
* Quoted by Hancock and Embleton, loc. cit., p, 17, 
