220 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



double back to bite. Meanwhile he makes for the nearest 

 suitable tree or wall, and dashes the head of the snake 

 against it with such force that it is instantly killed. 



Pennant, in his tour in Scotland, visited the island of 

 Islay in 1772, and made the following remarks regarding the 

 Adders there : " Vipers swarm in the heath : the natives 

 retain the vulgar error of their stinging with their forked 

 tongues ; that a sword on which the poison has fallen will 

 hiss in water like a red-hot iron ; and that a poultice of 

 human ordure is an infallible cure for the bite." l 



IS RAIA RADULA OF COUCH, THOMSON, AND 

 YARRELL A GOOD SPECIES? 



BY GEORGE SIM, A.L.S. 



PLATES IV. and V. 



FOR a good many years back I have been endeavouring to 

 compile a list of the fishes of the east coast of Scotland, and 

 no family has given me more trouble than the Rays. The 

 result has been that extended investigations were necessary, 

 and the outcome of one of these I now beg to lay before 

 the readers of the " Annals." To the form under consideration 

 no fewer than fourteen different names have been given, 

 many of the earlier writers holding it to be a distinct species, 

 while latterly it has been bandied about from variety to 

 species, and back again, until one can scarcely say how the 

 matter at present stands. 



As indicated above, Messrs. Couch, Thomson, and Yarrell 

 hold it to be a distinct species ; while Drs. Giinther and 

 Day, in their respective works, consider Raia radnla as 

 merely the adult form of Raia circularis, the latter author 

 assuming that his R. circularis and the Cuckoo and Sandy 

 Rays of Couch are one and the same. 



This is the point which I wish to discuss in the present 

 contribution. Before, however, going farther, it is necessary 



1 "A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides, 1772," vol. ii. p. 230. 



