09 



THORNBACK RAY. 



RAY-MAID. 



LlXX.EUS. WlLLOUGHBY; p. 74. 



Bloch; pi. 83, but the tail too long. 



Lacepede. Rtsso. 



Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 170. 



Jenyns; Manual, p. 205. 



Yarrell; Br. Fisbes, vol. ii, p. 582. 



Gray; Catalogue Br. Museum, p. 136. 



This is one of the commonest of the Rays, and the most 

 valued; as it affords a large amount of nourishment in a form 

 readily digested by the stomach. By fishermen accordingly it 

 is frequently reserved in a salted state for the subsistence of 

 their families, at a time when the state of the weather forbids 

 them from following their employment at sea. It is best 

 preserved under heavy pressure; as we are informed is also 

 the case with the Skate in some parts of Scotland; par- 

 ticularly in the Moray Firth. But, as we learn from Walter 

 Gregor, Esq., of Macduff, in the practice of that neighbourhood 

 the use of salt is dispensed with. Large stones are heaped upon 

 them in order to press out the juices; and the only attention 

 paid to it afterwards is, to secure it from rain and moisture. 

 The water in which either of these fishes has been boiled, 

 employed as a bath, is in repute for the cure of the gout. 



The Thornback is found in shallower water, and nearer land, 

 than most others of this family; and in consequence is taken 

 at all seasons. But its numbers are much lessened of late years; 

 the cause of which is supposed to be the increased practice of 

 fishing with trawls; by which not only the young ones, too 

 small to be used as food, are destroyed, but the ground is torn 

 up, and the food on which the fish must subsist dispersed, 

 with the destruction of the shelter necessary for the perfection 



