FISHES OF NEW YORK 55 



Disk witli the shape and proportions of D. c e n t r u r a ; 

 anterior margins nearly straight, meeting in a blunt angle on 

 the end of the snout, curved near the outer angle to meet the 

 slightly convex posterior margins; inner borders convex; outer 

 und hinder angles rounded: ventrals almost entirely covered by 

 the pectorals, their hinder margins convex; tail more than one 

 and one half times as long as the disk, with a low keel on the 

 upper side, a long, broad, membranous expansion below, rough- 

 ened with small asperities, and with one or more serrated spines 

 beginning in the first fourth of its length; body smooth in young, 

 with scattered small asperities in the old; a row of narrow, com- 

 pressed tubercles on the middle of the back and base of tail, 

 their points depressed and directed backward. On each 

 shoulder, parallel with the median row, there is a shorter row 

 varying in length according to age. Mouth with three papillae; 

 jaws more curved than in centrura and less than in 

 s a b i n a. Color bluish or uniform olive brown above, white 

 beneath. West Indies to Brazil, north to Rhode Island. 



De Kay's description of his whip sting ray is based on a female 

 captured in September off the coast of Rhode Island by Carson 

 Brevoort of New York. The length of the fish was 8 feet 6 

 inches and its weight 110 pounds. Mr Brevoort stated that the 

 whij) rays appeared to associate together, as he noticed many of 

 similar size and appearance swimming about at the same time. 

 They moved slowly together through the water, along the edges 

 of the rocks, about 3 feet below the surface. When captured, 

 the individual described by Dr De Kay whipped its tail about 

 with great activity in all directions. From this circumstance it 

 derives the name of whip ray. 



30 Dasyatis say (Le Sueur) 

 Souther fh Sting Ray 



Raja say Le Sueue, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pbila. I, 42, 1817. 



MylioMtis? say De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, .376, 1842. 



Trygon sayi Muller & Henle, Plagiostomen, 166, 1841; Dumeril, Elas- 



mobranches, 608, 1870. 

 Dasylatis sayi Gaeman, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 69, 1883. ■ 

 Dasyatis say Jordan & Eveemann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 86, 1896. 



