1108 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
THE STARRY RAY (sw. klorockan). 
RAJA RADI AT A. 
Plate XLVII, fig. 3. 
Length of the snout ( from the anterior margin of the eyes) about 13 or 14 % ( in one year old specimens about 
12 %) of the length of the body or about 19 — 21 % of the breadth of the disk. Distance between each nostril 
and the tip of the snout about 17 or 18 % a of the said breadth. Dorsal fins set close together , and the median 
line between them usually without aculeus. Aculei grooved in a stellate form at the base , their number in the 
median line of the back and tail at most about 16. 
Syn. Raja clavata, Olafs., Reise Isl., pp. 359 et 987, tabb. XLIX 
et L; Hollb. (p. p.), Gbgs Wett., Witt. Sarah. N. Haudl., 
pt. Ill (1819), p. 29 cum tabb.; Pall., Zoogr. Ross. 
Asiat., tom. Ill, p. 58; Nilss., Prodr. Ichthyol. Scand., 
p. 119. 
Raia fullonica, Fabr., Fna Groenl., p. 125; Faber, Tidskr. 
Naturv. Kbhvn, vol. V (1828), p. 246; Id. (p. p.), Fisch. 
Isl., p. 38. 
Raja radiata, Donov., Brit. Fish., tab. CXIV; Yarr., Brit. Fish., 
ed. I, vol. II, p. 439; Fr., Vet. Akad. Ilandl. 1838, p. 
146; MOll., Hle, Plagiost., p. 137; Sundev., v. We., Skand. 
Fisk., ed. I, p. 178, tab. 43; Kr., Damn. Fisk., vol. Ill, 
p. 939; Nilss., Skand. Fna, Fisk., p. 736; Mgrn, Finl. 
Fiskfna, p. 72; Gthr, Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. VIII, 
p. 460; Garm., Proc. Dost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. XVII 
(1874), p. 177; Coll., Forh. Vid. Selsk. Chrnia 1874, 
Tillfegsb., p. 214; 1879, No. 1, p. 105; Norsk. Nordh. 
Exped., Zool., Fisk., p. 14; N. Mag. Naturv. Chrnia, vol. 
29 (1884), p. 118; Cederstr., Ofvers. Vet. Akad. Forh. 
1876, No. 4, p. 67; Malm ( Amhlyraja ), Gbgs, Boh. Fna, 
p. 607; Winth. (Raja), Naturh. Tidskr. Kbhvn, ser. 3, 
vol. XII (1879), p. 60; Mor., Hist. Nat. Poiss. Fr., tom. 
I, p. 394; Mela, Vert. Fenn., p. 368, tab. X; Mob., 
Hcke, Fisch. Osts., p. 153; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., Irel ., 
vol. II, p. 347, tab. CLXXIII; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fisk., 
vol. Ill, p. 547. 
The Starry Ray is the smallest Scandinavian spe- 
cies of the genus. At a length of 47 2 dm. it has 
attained maturity, and 6 dm. would seem to be its 
maximum length, v. Weight’s figure represents a fully 
developed female in which the length of the disk was 
253 mm., that of the tail 192 mm., the greatest breadth 
309 mm., and the distance between the mouth and the 
tip of the snout 67 mm. In this species too the males 
are commonly smaller than the females. 
The disk is almost square, but has strongly rounded 
angles, especially the posterior, which is formed by the 
very long, broad, and uniformly rounded posterior lobes 
of the ventral fins. The anterior side-margins of the 
disk show a slight, A-shaped curvature, with broader 
and more rounded snout than that of the preceding 
species, and from the tip of the latter projects a very 
small, blunt muzzle. The posterior side-margins may 
almost be described as rounded. The greatest breadth 
of the disk is on an average rather more than 3 / 5 (58 
— 64 %), and its length somewhat more than 1 / 2 (50 
— 55 %), of the length of the body, the latter thus 
measuring 86 — 88 % of the former. The average dis- 
tance from the tip of the snout to the cloaca is rather 
more than 7 / 10 (70 — 75 %) of the greatest breadth of 
the body, and the length to the hind margin of the 
I ventral fins is almost equal to the said breadth. 
The length of the head is here too about 1 / 5 (18 
—21 %) of that of the body, and that of the snout 
varies, as in the preceding species, between about 12 
and 14 % of the latter, but here between about 1 9 x / 2 and 
21 % (exceptionally 23 %) of the greatest breadth of the 
disk. The interorbital breadth of the forehead and the 
dimensions of the eyes and spiracles are about the same 
as in the preceding species. In the position of the 
nostrils too there is little difference from the Thorn- 
back, the distance between them being about 8 /i 0 — Vio 
of that between each of them and the tip of the snout 
or 21 — 17 % of that between the cloaca and the last- 
mentioned point. The breadth of the mouth is here too 
in the young somewhat less than or equal to the inter- 
nasal width, in the old somewhat greater. The denti- 
tion is very nearly alike in both sexes. The teeth (fig. 
316) are small and pointed, set in about 36 rows along 
both jaws, the largest in the middle, both the size and 
number showing diminution towards the corners of the 
mouth. Each tooth consists of a rounded basal disk, 
Sometimes, according to Kroyer, 15’/ 2 %. 
