1909. ! 
N. Ann AND ALE: Report on the Batoidei. 
43 
the whole of the mandibular surface ; their cusps are long and very sharp, directed 
obliquely backwards. There is a low cutaneous ridge behind the teeth on either 
jaw but no outstanding processes. 
Colour. — The colour is variable in European specimens ; in the three Indian ones I 
have seen the dorsal surface was of a peculiar livid dark purple-brown, densely 
spotted with purplish buff. These markings extended over to the ventral margin 
of the pectoral fins ; but the greater part of the ventral surface was dull white. 
The only specimen I have examined in detail is one brought by Dr. Travis J enkins 
in December, 1908, from Puri, where it had been taken in a seine-net worked from the 
shore. In November of the same year, however, I saw a very similar specimen, which 
had been captured in the same way, at Quilon on the Travancore coast. Dr. Jenkins’s 
specimen measures (in spirit) 245 mm. across the disk, which is 227 mm. long ; the 
tail is 173 mm. long, the total length being thus 400 mm. The specimen is a female 
and contained ripe ovarian eggs ; a good photograph is reproduced on pi. v, fig. 3. 
Genus Narcine, Henle. 
Disk longer than broad, distinct from tail, which bears two dorsal fins and has a fold 
of skin along each side. Pectoral fins well developed ; pelvic fins not united 
behind the anus. Eyes close to the spiracles, well developed. Nasal valves con- 
fluent. Mouth tubular and protrusible ; its cleft narrow and straight. Teeth 
pointed, with a single cusp, which is directed backwards and in some species 
feebly developed. 
At first sight this genus is very near Torpedo, from which Günther says that it 
“ differs in having the spiracles almost immediately behind the eye.” He also says 
that the teeth sometimes have a median point, which, however, does not project. I 
cannot, however, see any real difference between the two genera in respect to the teeth ; 
whether the ” median point” projects or :iot is due to the position of the mouth 
and to the angle at which the teeth ' are examined, while the absence of a median 
point is often due to its being worn away. So far as the Indian species are concerned, 
there is a very marked difference between the two genera in respect to the shape of 
the mouth, which in Torpedo is evidently capable of being widely opened, although it 
appears to be somewhat protrusible, while in Narcine it can be thrust out bodily as a 
tubular structure with a narrow, transverse, slit-like aperture. 
Narcine has long been known to be represented in Indian seas by two shallow- 
water forms, which Day regarded as mere colour varieties, while LI05M has recentty 
described a deep-sea species. I feel obliged to separate the two former from one 
another as distinct species for reasons given below. Here I may say that Lloyd’s 
N . mollis is closely related to the form I have described as N . brunnea, although clearly 
distinct from that form. It is distinguished by the uniform dark colour of its dorsal and 
' In comparing the teeth of these genera great care must be taken to select teeth from the back of 
the jaws, where thej' have not been worn. Some of Duméril’s figures (rVrt^. Hist. Voiss., pi. xi) rather 
suggest that he did not adopt this precaution. 
