1909.] 
N. Annandai<e : Report on the Batoidei. 
45 
Adult specimens measure about 34 cm. in total length and about 17 cm. across the 
disk.' Numerous specimens have been taken off the Orissa coast by the “ Golden 
Crown,” and I have recently had an opportunity of examining many living ones on the 
beach at Puri, where large numbers are caught daily in seine-nets worked from the 
shore during calm weather. Two points at once become clear as a result of the ex- 
amination of fresh specimens, (i) that it was impossible to separate Henle’s Narcine 
indica from N . timlei , Bloch and Schneider, on the ground of the shape of the disk, 
and (2) that the specimens examined fell into two very distinct groups separated 
from one another not only by colour but also by size. 
As regards the first of these points, the variation in the outline of the disk is re- 
markably wide and does not appear to be correlated with any difference in size, sex, 
or coloration. It is due mainly to differences in the development of the pectoral fins, 
the rays of which vary greatly not only in length but also as regards their position on 
the body. 
Another point in which variation is very marked is the size of the eyes as com- 
pared with that of the spiracles. Occasionally the eyes are nearly as large as the spir- 
acles, sometimes they have not more than half the superficial area of these structures. 
The size and proportions of the dorsal and caudal fins are also variable. 
As regards the important question of coloration, variation exists as regards the 
size and regularity (or otherwise) of the spots on the dorsal surface, which in one set of 
specimens are always present. 
Day, in the ” Fauna ” and in the Fishes of India, remarks that some specimens 
have no spots on the dorsal surface and that the absence of spots is not due to age, sex 
or locality. These statements are fully borne out by the large series of living and 
preserved specimens I have seen ; but I do not think that the two forms are specifically 
identical and have therefore been forced to describe the immaculate one as a new 
species. Unfortunately it is the one figured by Day as typical of N . timlei. 
Narcine timlei is very sluggish in its movements. I have failed repeatedly to 
induce it to give an electric shock even when it was in a bucket of sea-water. 
Narcine hrunnea, sp. nov. (PI. iim, fig. 2.) 
N. timlei. Day, Fishes of India, pi. cxcii, fig. 3 ; Faun. Brit. Ind., Fishes, vol. i, 
fig- 18, p. 45. 
Closely related to A’, timlei, from which it differs in the following characters: (i) 
coloration, (2) size, (3) form of the teeth, (4) outline of the free edge of the 
nasal flap, and (5) form of the processes in the mouth. 
(i) The dorsal surface is of a warm chocolate-brown without .spots, the ventral 
surface creamy white. A narrow margin of the latter shade runs round 
the disk, being more distinct anteriorly than posteriorly : the dorsal and 
caudal fins, as well as the lateral ones, are edged with greyish white. 
' Day’s statement that this species grows to at least 18 inches in total length {Fishes oj India, 
vol. ii, p. 733) is perhaps due to a confusion with some species of Torpedo. Judging from old specimens 
in the Indian Museum, such a confusion actually existed in his diagnoses. 
