40 



FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



Family RHINOBATIDiE. The Shark-like Rays. 



Rays resembling sharks, with body long, flat, moderately broad, and grad- 

 ually merging into the long tail; skin nearly smooth, with no conspicuous 

 spines; 2 well developed dorsal fins without spine; rayed part of pectoral fins not 

 connected with snout; caudal fin with a prominent fold of skin on each side. 

 Viviparous fishes of the warm seas, about 5 genera represented on the Atlantic 

 coast. 



Genus RHIHOBATUS Bloch & Schneider. Guitar-fishes. 



Body depressed, broad anteriorly, tapering posteriorly into tail; snout long, 

 formed by an extension of cartilage, space between snout and pectoral fins 

 covered with membrane; 2 dorsal fins, both posterior to ventral fins; caudal fin 

 with no lower lobe; spiracles wide; nostrils wide, oblique; skin covered with 

 rough scales, with a few spines on various parts of upper surface. Seven or 

 eight American species, one occurring on South Atlantic coast. {Rhinohatus, 

 shark-skate.) 



14. RHINOBATUS LENTIGINOSUS Garman. 

 "Ray"; "Olear-nose"; Guitar-fish. 



Rhinohatus leniiginosus Garman, Bulletin Museum Comparative Zoology, vi, 168, 1880; Florida. Jordan & 

 Evermann, 1896, 62, pi. viii, fig. 28; pi. ix, figs. 28a and 28i>. 



Diagnosis.— Disk sub-triangular, its width .33 total length; tail .5 length; snout slender; 

 pointed; mouth straight, its width somewhat less than interorbital space; teeth small, obtuse; 

 eyes twice as large as spiracles; spines on back and anterior to eyes small; spines on shoulders 

 and between eyes obsolete; 5 larger spines on tip of snout. Color: above brown, with 

 numerous small, round, light spots; below pale, (lentiginosits, freckled.) 



Fig. 8 (a and b). Guitar-fish. Rhinobatits lentiginosits. Lateral and dorsal views. 



This species, heretofore known only from Charleston southward, occurs on 

 the North Carolina coast at Beaufort and doubtless elsewhere. A 2-foot speci- 

 men was taken in a drag-net near Middle Marsh, in Beaufort harbor, July 6, 1899; 

 this is the only example recorded at the laboratory, but it appears from informa- 



