116 
SANDY RAT. 
A few spines near the end of the snout, a line of them behind 
each eye, five short parallel rows on the middle of the back, 
the middle row continued obscurely along the groove to the 
tail, which is covered with stout hooks, scarcely in regular 
line’s; the rest of the body smooth. Colour above an uniform 
reddish brown, white below. On the disk a variable number 
of oscellated spots, the size of the section of a large pea; 
the centre yellow, the border a deeper impression of the 
colour of the ground. I have counted eight up to sixteen 
of these spots in different examples, and believe they have 
no certain number, but they are always situated on each 
side of the disk in corresponding regularity. I have never 
found them absent, nor have I ever found the remarkable 
beauty-spot, which is so common on several species of this 
family, and forms so conspicuous an ornament on the Cuckoo 
Ray, on this fish. 
