EAGLE RAY. 593 



Posterior fins square, and very small proportionally. Tail 

 once and a half as long- as the body, flagelliform, tapering 

 to a point, quadrangular, smooth, furnished with a small fin 

 within two inches of its root, and immediately under this fin 

 the aculeus, or sting, is protruded, which is upwards of three 

 inches in length, linear-lanceolate, long, serrated on both 

 sides, the serratures reflected. Ventral surface whitish, duskier 

 at the sides, smooth. Teeth transverse, linear-oblong, with 

 a small open space between the end of every pair on each 

 side." 



" Extreme breadth twenty-one inches. From the snout 

 to the insertion of the tail thirteen inches. Length of the 

 tail twenty-one inches and a half." 



I should be most ungrateful if I did not here record my 

 sincere thanks to Dr. Johnston, whose extreme liberality in- 

 duced him to present this interesting and unique British 

 specimen to me, and it is now preserved in my collection, 

 containing most of our British Rays. 



This fish is called Eagle Ray from the wing-like form 

 of the pectoral fins ; and Whip Ray, from the long, slender, 

 and flexible character of its tail. The outline near the figure 

 of the fish represents the teeth of the upper and under jaw ; 

 each jaw forms part of a circle ; and from a particular rolling 

 motion, added to the crushing power of these teeth, the fish 

 has acquired the additional name of the Miller, in this and 

 in some other countries. 



The Eagle Ray inhabits the European seas, the Mediter- 

 ranean, and has been found as far south as the Cape. Bloch 

 says he obtained one from Hamburgh, but it appears to be 

 much more common in the Mediterranean. Risso, in his 

 Ichthyology and Natural History of the environs of Nice, 

 says, that this species is taken throughout the year on the 

 shores of Nice, and is exposed for sale in the markets of 

 Sardinia and Rome : at the former place the spine of the 



VOL. II. 2 q 



