SANDY RAY. 
1113 
Coll., Forh. Vid. Selsk. Clirnia 1874, Tillasgsh., p. 214; 
1879, No. 1, p. 105; N. Mag. Naturv. Clirnia, vol. 29 (1884), 
p. 119; Malm, Gbgs , Boh. Fna, p. 608; Mor., Hist. 
Nat. Poiss. Fr., tom. I, p. 397 ; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., Irel., 
vol. II, p. 348, tab. CLXXIV ; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fislc., 
vol. Ill, p. 564; Carus, Prodr. Face Med.it., vol. II, 
p. 521. 
The Sandy Ray attains the greatest size among 
our blunt-nosed species, the females growing to a 
length of at least 12 dm. It also undergoes the greatest 
alterations in its proportions, the young having com- 
paratively a much longer tail than the old. 
The form of the body is essentially the same as 
in the case of the Starry Kay; but the disk is still 
more rounded, and the root of the tail broader (flatter). 
The breadth of the disk is in young specimens (less 
than 4 dm. long) about 48 — 53 %, in old as much as 
63 or 64 %, and its length in the former about 44 — 
51 %, in the latter 52 — 54 %, of the length of the body, 
the length of the disk thus varying between about 85 
and 95 % a of its breadth. The distance from the tip 
of the snout to the cloaca is about 3 / 4 of the greatest 
breadth of the body, and that to the hind extremity 
of the ventral tins about equal to the same. 
The length of the head, which varies, according to 
Doderlein’s measurements, between 25 and 38 % of 
the breadth of the disk, is during youth, in consequence 
of the great length of the tail, only about 15 % of that 
of the body; subsequently, according to Doderlein, this 
percentage increases to 20, while the relative length of 
the tail is undergoing reduction, but again diminishes in 
the old to 16 % of the length of the body. The length 
of the snout is less in proportion to that of the body 
than in any among the preceding species of the genus, 
but in proportion to the breadth of the disk similar to 
the same measurement in the Starry Ray 6 . The least 
interorbital width of the forehead in this species too 
is somewhat more than x / 3 (about 36 °/o) of the length 
of the snout, and the longitudinal diameter of the eyes 
varies between about 3 / 4 and 2 / 3 of this breadth. The 
width of the spiracles, which are directed rather straight 
outwards, is in young specimens less, in old, according 
to Doderlein, i / i greater, than the longitudinal dia- 
meter of the eyes. The mouth and its dentition are 
subject to considerable alterations of growth. In the 
young the cleft of the mouth is much smaller than in 
Starry Rays of the same size, but the teeth are similar 
to those of the latter; in old specimens the mouth is 
broad, and the teeth are sharp and unguiform, both in 
females and males, while their number too shows con- 
siderable increase with age. In a young specimen about 
45 cm. long we find only 34 longitudinal rows of teeth 
in the upper jaw, where Malm in older specimens 
counted 78. The internasal width is in our young 
specimens 71 — 72 % of the distance between either of 
the nostrils and the tip of the snout, but only 15 — 
16 % of that between the mouth of the cloaca and the 
latter point. 
Young specimens of the Sandy Ray too have only 
the dorsal side armed with spines, the ventral being 
perfectly smooth. In older specimens both the ventral 
side and the dorsal are more or less densely coated 
with spinulte throughout the greater part of the surface; 
but certain patches, as, on the dorsal side, the hind 
margin of the pectoral fins, the anterior lobe and the 
base of the ventral fins together with an oblong patch 
further in, and the greater portion of the median line 
of the back and tail, and, on the ventral side, the outer 
part of the pectoral fins, the whole of the ventral fins, 
and the region between the latter pair, are smooth. 
Along the anterior margin of the pectoral fins — in old 
specimens both on the dorsal side and the ventral — as 
well as on the sides of the tail and at its extreme lateral 
margin — in young specimens, however, only to aline 
with the beginning of the first dorsal fin, where the 
lateral margins of the tail develop a broad dermal 
fold — are set rows of larger spinulae, intermediate be- 
tween spinulae and aculei. The true aculei, which here 
too are grooved, though not so distinctly as in the 
Starry Ray, have a broad conical base and a compress- 
ed, recurved spine. They are set on the front of the 
snout, in a curved row on the supraorbital margin, in 
a triangular patch between the head and the scapular 
cartilage, one or two at each end of the latter carti- 
lage, in a row on each side of the median dorsal line 
behind the scapular cartilage — sometimes, especially 
in old specimens, this row commences further back or 
even not before the tail — and in two to four more or 
less irregular series on the sides of the tail. The me- 
dian line itself is smooth, with the exception that, 
owing to the irregularity prevalent in the distribution 
° According to DSderlein’s measurements the variations run between 83 and 97 %. 
6 In the Mediterranean falsavela, however, it is sometimes, according to DSderlein’s measurements, only about 16 — 17 % of the 
breadth of the disk. 
