XX I.- ON TWO NEW SPECIES OF EAGI.E- 

 RAYS {MY LIOBAT ID M), WITH NOTES 

 ON THE SKULIv OF THE GENUS 

 CERATOPT ERA. . 



By R. E. Ivi^OYD, M.B., B.Sc, CapL, I. M.S., formerly Surgeon 

 Naturalist, Marine Survey of India. 



During a brief collecting trip to Puri^ on the Orissa Coast, re- 

 cently taken in conjunction with Dr. N. Annandale, we were in- 

 formed that a gigantic fish had been lately caught in the seine net 

 of some local fishermen, who regarded the capture as a most un- 

 usual event. Search was made for evidence of this story, with the 

 result that a portion of an immense ray was found almost buried 

 in sand close to high-water-mark. 



The specimen, although in an advanced stage of decomposi- 

 tion, was covered with tough skin, so that the form of the head was 

 completely preserved. From the appearance of the wide mouth, 

 gaping directly forwards and flanked by two cephalic flippers, 

 the flsh was recognised to be one of those rays which, owing to 

 their gigantic size, are rarely captured, and still less often appear 

 in Museum collections. The specimen, which measured three feet 

 nine inches across the head from eye to eye, was despatched to the 

 Indian Museum. 



Unfortunately the great pectoral fins had been cut off at the time 

 of its capture, but the complete head and shoulder girdle with the 

 intervening gill bars were obtained. A detached tail-like portion 

 of vertebral column was found close by, bearing a median dorsal 

 fin and a curious rounded knob (plate v, fig. 3). From the charac- 

 ter of the skin this was seen to be part of the same remarkable fish. 

 The dorsal fin in the MyliobatidcB is situated at the hinder end of 

 the disc between the pelvic fins ; this detached portion must there- 

 fore belong to the disc and not to the tail ; furthermore, the 

 anterior end of it fits on to the exposed centrum which terminates 

 the vertebral column behind the shoulder girdle. 



The MyliobatidcB are by some authors divided into two groups, 

 — Myliohatina and Ceratopterina. It will be shown further on that 

 this division is highly justifiable. It is diflicult to imagine two 

 structures more unlike one another than the skulls of Ceratoptera 

 and Aetobatis, the latter genus being taken as an example of the 

 Myliobatina. 



The group Ceratopterina contains three genera, two of which 

 have been long known. All three are characterised by possessing 



