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 arid a half times, in the Nelwyn 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' 1 ' 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 pelvic rays were both broken ; the longer 

 of the two was 37 inches in length, about ^ inch thick 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 (pi. xxiii., fig. 1, no) 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. 3) : 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 (pi. 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. 



