46 ' NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



about equal to the interorbital width; teeth acute, small, con- 

 ical, distant; spiracles large, crescentic, behind the eyes; eye 

 small, its diameter one fourth of the distance between the eyes; 

 gill openings wide, subinferior, partly covered by the pectoral 

 fin; two small dorsal fins, close together, behind the ventrals; 

 anal fin wanting; pectoral fins very large, widely expanded, 

 deeply notched at the base; ventrals very large, their length 

 greater than that of the head; skin covered with stiff prickles, 

 largest on the median line of the back. 



Color bluish ashy gray or brown above, sometimes blotched 

 and speckled, pale below. The monkfish reaches a length of 

 4 feet. It is easily recognized by its peculiar shape. It in- 

 habits the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of 

 the United States from Cape Cod and San Francisco 'south- 

 ward. It is not common in New York waters, but it appears 

 occasionally in Gravesend bay in summer and is believed to 

 occur in this state only in bays adjacent to the Atlantic. 



Mitchill, apparently, was not familiar with the species. De 

 Kay knew the fish only from Le Sueur's descriptions and the 

 writings of other ichthyologists. He gives the common names 

 employed in Europe; monk, monkeyfish, kingston, shark ray, 

 and fiddlefish. A New York fisherman informed De Kay that 

 it w^as known to him as the little bullhead shark. 



A specimen weighing 35 or 40 pounds an4 measuring about 4 

 feet was taken in a trap at Menemsha bight, Marthas Vine- 

 yard, Sep. 1, 1873. The writer saw one taken at the same place 



a few years later. 



Order BATOIDEI 



Rays 



Suborder SARCURA 



Family rajidae 



Skates 



Genus raja (Artedi) Linnaeus 



In the rays the disk is broad, rhombic; the pectorals extend 



to, but not around the snout; the ventrals are large and deeply 



notched; the tail is usually long, without serrated spine, slender, 



