FAMILY, VI— MTLIOBATID^. 74o 



mches across the disk ff , and six or seven vertical rows. It may therefore be supposed that the number 

 increases with age, and perhaps alters in shape. The band of teeth reach nearly to the angle of the month. 

 Fins — no spine on the tail posterior to the dorsal fin. Golows — of a deep purplish superiorly : white beneath. 



Amongst Sir Walter Elliot's notes on these fishes is an account of a large female example of this species, 

 16 ft. 9 in. across the disk, which at first broke the net but was eventually captured, Oct. 8th, 1850 ; 

 subsequently. May 12th, 1863, a male was taken near the same place 18 ft. 8 in. across the disk. It is 

 observed that only the stump of a tail remained in the female, this appendage being very liable to injury and 

 seldom found perfect in adults. 



Habitat. — Seas of India to the Malay Archipelago : attaining to 18 feet and upwards across the disk. 

 The example is figured from Jerdon's specimen in the British Museum, 34 inches across the disk. 



2. Dicerobatns Kuhlii. 



Oephaloptera Kuhlii, Miiller and Henle, p. 185, t. lix, f. 1 ; Bleaker, Amboina, p. 6, and Beng. p. 82 ; 

 Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss. i, p. 654. 



Bicerobatis Kuhlii, Giinther, Catal. viii, p. 497. 



Disk more than twice as wide as long : tail not so long as the disk. Body and tail smooth. Teeth — 

 wider than broad : -|-|;||- series, the band ceasing some distance from the angle of the mouth. Colours — brown 

 or greenish. 



Habitat. — From, the Bast coast of Africa through the seas of India to the Malay Archipelago. 



Genus, 6 — Cbeatoptiea, Mutter and Henle. 



Head trvMcated anteriorly, free from the pectoral fin, a portion of which latter, however, exists in the form of 

 a horn-like appendage on either side of the head. Mouth wide and anterior. Teeth small and only in the lower jaw. 

 Tail elongated and slender, with a dorsal fin situated on its base, but without any spine. 



Habitat, — Tropical and temperate seas. 



Ceratoptera Ehrenbergii. 



Miiller and Henle, Plagiost. p. 187 ; Giinther, Catal. viii, p. 498. 



Kotuwa tirihe, Tamil. 



Amongst Sir "Walter Elliot's figures of Madras fish is one of which the woodcut is a reduced copy. The 

 original is 6 in. across the disk, and is termed Cephaloptera, and the Tamil name is also given. 1 can only 

 surmise that it is this species and identical with the unpublished plate of the " Symbolse Physics" adverted to 

 in the British Museum Catalogue, named Gephalopteira stelligera, and in which the horns are bent horizontally 

 inwards. 



5 c 



