MANTIDyE. XVIII. 23 



the middle series largest. Otherwise essentially as in Dasyatidce. 

 Genera 3, species 20, in the warm seas. 



a. Snout entire. 



b. Teeth very broad, in one series Stoasodon, 24. 



bb. Teeth in several series Aetobatis, 25. 



aa. Snout emarginate ; teeth in several series Rhinoptera, 26. 



24. STOASODON Cantor. (Aetobatis Muller & Henle.) 

 (oToa, arcade ; oSous, tooth.) 



34. S. narinari (Euphrasen). Bishop Ray. Disk twice as 

 broad as long. Tail very long, three or four times disk. Brown 

 with many round yellowish spots. Warm seas, N. to Va. (Nari- 

 nari, the Brazilian name.) 



25. AETOBATIS Blainville (1816). {Myliobatis Dumeril, 1817.) 

 (aiTos, eagle ; ^aris, ray.) 



35. A. freminvillii (Le Sueur). Eagle Say. Skin smooth ; 

 color reddish brown. Cape Cod S. Scarce. (For Christian Pau- 

 lin de Freminville, author of some papers on Plectognaths.) 



26. RHINOPTERA Kulil. 



36. R. bonasus (Mitchill). Cow-nosed Ray. Cephalic fin 

 emarginate, and placed below level of pectorals, so that the snout 

 appears four-lobed when viewed from the front. Skin nearly 

 smooth. Cape Cod S. " He enters the bay and ranges very exten- 

 sively the flats where the soft clam lives. These shell-fish he is 

 supposed to devour, for a shoal of cow-noses root up the salt- 

 water flats as completely as a drove of hogs would do." (Mitchill.) 

 (R. quadriloha Le Sueur.) (Lat., a buffalo.) 



Family XVIII. MANTID^. (The Sea Devils.) 



Rays of immense size, similar to the Aetobatidos, but with the 

 cephalic fins forming long ear-like appendages, and with the teeth 

 very small. Skin rough. Genera 2, species 7 ; among the largest 

 of all fishes, found in warm seas, 

 a. Teeth in lower jaw only ; mouth terminal Manta, 27. 



27. MANTA Bancroft. 

 (Manta, blanket, " a name used at the pearl fisheries of Panama, 

 for an enormous fish much dreaded by the divers, whom it is said 

 to devour, after enveloping them in its vast wings.") 



37. M. birostris (Walbaum). Sea Devil. Manta. Disk 

 not quite twice as broad as long ; tail as long as disk. Brown ; 

 disk 12 feet long; its breadth about 20. Tropical seas, N". to 

 Delaware Bay. (Lat. bis, two; rostrum, snout.) 



