Garman.] 178 [November 4, 



spines above the eyes and spiracles, on the girdle, and down the 

 median line. 



Most adults have traces of the median row of spines, either on the 

 back or on the tail near the caudal fins. The adult males have two 

 or more rows of large hooks toward, and parallel with, the outer 

 margin of the pectoral. The females have the small scales around 

 the vent. In the claspers the hook is some distance from the end of 

 the cartilage which forms the crotch in erinacea, but which in this 

 species is undeveloped. There is a membrane along the side of the 

 tail. The caudal fins are not separate to the base. They are 

 rounded in outline and rough with small spines; the posterior is at a 

 little distance from the end of the tail. The jaws are curved. The 

 teeth are sharp in the males, more blunt in the other sex; the number 

 of rows in the majority of our specimens was •§-§-, or very near it; the 

 lowest counted was 80, and one specimen had 110. 



Color light brown, with rounded spots of darker. A translucent 

 space on each side of the rostrum is nearly white. Near the poste- 

 rior angle of the pectoral there is a large ocellus three-fourths of an 

 inch in diametre. This is white, in alcoholic specimens, with a dark 

 spot in the centre, and a darker border. Much nearer the angle 

 there is a smaller one, of about a third of the size, which lacks the 

 spot in the centre. Just forward of their junction, between the pec- 

 torals and ventrals, there is a third, about half as large as the first. 

 Some specimens have only one ocellus; others two. 



Size of a male from Nahant, Mass.: L. 32, 10,16. W. 21. Teeth f|. 

 Size of a female from Nahant, Mass.: L. 32£, 101, 161. W. 21 £. 

 Teeth jf 



The variety diaphana differs principally in size, being smaller, and 

 in markings, being without ocellse. 



3. Raja radiata. 



Raja radiata Donovan, Hist. Brit. Fish., v, pi. 114, 1820. — Storer, 

 Report on the Fishes of Mass., p. 201, 1839. — Miiller and Henle, 

 Plagiostomen, p. 137, 1841. 



Raja americana DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, pt. in, p. 368, pi. 66, fig. 

 215, 1842. — Storer, Synopsis Fish. North Amer., p. 260, 1846. 



Raja Icevis Storer, Hist. Fish. Mass., p. 266 (description) 1867. 



Raja radiata Dumeril, Elasmobranchs, Tom. i, pt. n, p. 531, 1870. 

 — Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit.Mus., Vol. vm, p. 460, 1870. 



This animal has been described so often by European naturalists 

 that no attempt is made to give atcomplete synonymy. The anterior 



