RA1ID.E. 



not more than four inches across and seven inches in length, 



O 



was caught on the north coast of Britain, and was commu- 

 nicated to him by Mr. Stuchbury. 



Dr. Fleming, in his History of British Animals, quotes 

 as a synonyme to radiata the R.fullonica of the Fauna of 

 Greenland, by Fabricius ; and it is probably a Northern 

 species, the only three examples of it I have seen having 

 been received, one from Berwick Bay, and two from the 

 Frith of Forth. The first was a female, for which I am 

 indebted to the kindness of Dr. George Johnston, and from 

 this example the figure here given was derived. In 1835, 

 Dr. Parnell sent me from Edinburgh two examples, a male 

 and a female, which had been obtained in the Forth, and 

 obligingly permitted me to retain the male for my own col- 

 lection, which came marked accordingly. On comparing 

 these three examples with Mr. Donovan^ figure, no doubt 

 remained that they were of the same species. 



The habits of this fish are but little known, and the figure 

 here given being that of a female, I shall closely describe 

 the male, which was nineteen inches long from the point of 

 the nose to the end of the tail, and fourteen inches in 

 breadth ; the snout but little produced, almost falling in 

 with the line of the anterior margin ; the lateral expansion 

 of the pectorals and their posterior margins rounded ; the 

 pelvic fins rather large : the central ridge of the nose, and 

 a great portion of the pectoral fins or wings, are covered 

 with asperities of different sizes, the forms of which are all 

 alike, being a single spine bent backwards, arising from a 

 stellated base of many radii ; these appear to be nearly sym- 

 metrical, and about equal in number on the two sides : the 

 eyes are blue and rather large, placed about half-way be- 

 tween the central transverse cartilaginous arch of the body 

 and the end of the snout ; before each eye one large spine, 

 and two large spines behind, with several smaller ones along 



