1909.] 



N. Annandale : Report on the Batoidei. 



There is a cast of a young specimen coloured from life in the Trivandrum Museum. 

 It is of a bright salmon-pink body colour with numerous, narrow, irregular black trans- 

 verse bars. In older individuals the pink fades to a dull greenish shade, while the black 

 bars become fainter and anastomoye into a more or less regular reticulation, at first 

 enclosing round white spots and finally becoming almost obliterated, so that only a 

 faint marbling persists. In old specimens, however, seme dark linear markings usually 

 remain on the base of the pectoral fins. In the male figured on plate v, fig. 5, these 

 markings took the exact form of a ? symmetrical on the two sides. 



Five specimens have been taken to my knowledge by the "Golden Crown,' ' four 

 of them fully adult. One ( 2 ) was captured in October off the Orissa coast, and two 

 ( cf , $ ) in December off the mouth of R. Hughli. The measurements of the former 

 and of one of the latter were as follows : — 



204-0 cm. 



2o6-o 



I3i'0 ,, 



134-0 





73-0 





25-3 



25-3 ,, 



27-8 



35-4 „ 



45-6 



22-8 „ 



13-9 



32-9 „ 



24-0 



25-3 ,, 



17-7 



443 ,, 



30-5 



Total length 



Breadth across pectoral fins 

 Mouth to vent 

 Width of mouth 

 Distance between eyes 

 Anterior border of pectoral fins 

 Anterior border of pelvic fins 

 Anterior border of ist dorsal 

 Anterior border of 2nd dorsal 

 I^ength of upper lobe of caudal fins 



Day's figure {Fishes of India, vol. ii, pi. cxciii, fig. 3) is evidently taken from an 

 immature specimen. I therefore reproduce a photograph of the male whose measure- 

 ments are given above. 



Genus Rhinobatis, Bloch and Schneider. 



Head produced into a more or less elongated and narrow rostrum without lateral teeth. 

 Back bearing tubercles of various kinds in rows, or uniformly covered with granu- 

 lar denticles. Teeth lozenge-shaped or almost circular, with a single transverse 

 ridge or a central conical projection. x\nterior nasal valves not confluent. 

 Müller and Henle in separating ' ' Rhynchohatiis " from the species they included in 

 " Rhinohatus " relied mainly (see Syst. Beschr. d. Plagiostomen , pp. m and 113) on 

 the shape of the nasal valves, the position of the spiracles relative to the eyes anä the 

 outline of the anterior part of the body, while Günther {Cat. Fishes, vni, pp. 440, 441) 

 and Day {Faun. Brit. Ind., Fishes, i, pp. 39, 40, 42) lay great stress on the fact that 

 the anterior margin of the pectoral fin is quite free in Rhynchohatis and is joined to the 

 snout by a membrane in Rhinobatis. Day also notes that the anterior dorsal fin is 

 opposite the pelvic fins in the former genus and far behind them in the latter. 



The differences noted by Müller and Henle undoubtedly exist, but they seem 

 hardly to be of generic value, considering the variation that occurs within the limits 

 of the genus Rhinobatis {sensu stricto), nor does the difference in the position of the 



