FISHES—RAJAE. 
369 
fin than the nostrils. The pectorals are very large, sub-triangular, posteriorly expanded, and 
concave upon the latter margin ; their extremities extending somewhat beyond the insertion of 
the spine at the first dorsal fin, when stretched alongside the body. 
The scales are very small, closely approximated, and somewhat rougher on the upper surface 
of the body than on the lower surface, owing to a proportional development of their respective 
keels. 
The color above is of a dark greyish tint, with a few small whitish-yellow spots, irregularly 
scattered; under the head and along the belly, dull yellowish ; under the caudal region, of a 
greenish grey hue. 
In the embryos the ground color is more of a bluish tint, and the lighter spots just alluded 
to are much more conspicuous than in the adult, constituting longitudinal series, in which the 
spots sometimes unite to form a continuous band, increasing in width towards the caudal region, 
where the lowermost merges into the uniform tint of the abdomen. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
No. of 
specs. 
Sex and 
age. 
Locality. 
When 
collected. 
Whence obt ned. 
Nature of 
specimen. 
Orig. 
No. 
Collected by— 
994 
i 
Adult $ 
Fort Steilacoom,Puget’s Sound. 
1853 
Gov. I. I. Stevens... 
Alcoholic. 
17 
Dr.Geo. Suckley. 
997 
5 
1853 
998 
] 
1853 
999 
8 
1855 
SUB-ORDER II. 
RAJAE. 
The rays or skates may be distinguished from the sharks by a depressed, broad, elongated, or 
short body, terminated by a slender, sometimes flagelliform tail; a complete thoracic arch 
extending to the dorsal region ; the pectoral fins confounded, or else continuous with the 
cephalic region ; the eyelids being either absent or immovable; the branchial fissures, five 
on either side, situated on the ventral surface beneath the pectoral fins, and by the anterior 
portion of the vertebral column, which forms a continuous cartilaginous mass, without any 
vertebral division. 
Syn. — Rajidae, Bonap. Sagg. Distr. metod. Anim. Yert. 1831, 122 ; Syst. Vertebr. 1837, 44 ; &, Selach. Tabul. analyt. 
1833, 3.— DeKay, New Y. Faun. IV, 1842, 366.— Mull, in Wiegm. Archiv fur Naturg. 1845, I, 137.— 
Storer, Synops. 1846. 
Rajae, Mull. Yergl. Anat. Myxin. I, 1836.— Mull. Henle, Syst. Beschr. Plagiost. 1841, 103. 
Raiadae, Bd. Iconogr. Encycl. II, 1850, 242. 
Hypotremes, Dum. Ichthyol. analyt. 1856, 137. 
We have, so far, but few observations to put on record regarding the rays of the western 
coast of North America. If we are at all justified in expecting to find there the same approximate 
number of species as we are acquainted with along the Atlantic coast, many more may be 
pronounced undiscovered as yet. 
41 a 
