FISHES OP NEW YORK 51 



Tlie barn-dooi' skate readies a leiigtli exceeding 4 feet; it is 

 used to some extent for food. The species has been taken in 

 Gravesend bay in October. It suffers in captivity for the want 

 of sand and mud and because of the lack of suitable food, its 

 average duration of life is 3 or 4 months. 



Mitchill described an individual measuring 49 inches which 

 was caught at a wharf in the East river Nov. 5, 1815. At Woods 

 Hole Mass. it is common in spring and fall, rare in summer. 



Family narcobaxidae 

 Electric Rays 

 Genus tetronarce Gill 

 Rays with a large electric organ composed of many hexagonal 

 tubes between the pectoral fins and the head; disk very broad, 

 abruptly contracted at the tail; two dorsal fins, the first much 

 the larger, its origin not far in advance of the end of the ven- 

 trals; caudal fin well developed; ventral fins large, separate; 

 spiracles large, oblong, well behind the eyes, with entire edges; 

 mouth small; teeth sharp; skin smooth. Seas of Europe and 

 America. 



27 Tetronarce occidentalis (Storer) 



Torpedo; Cramp Fish; Numh Fish 



Torpedo occidentalis Stoker, Am. Jour. Sci. Arts, IGo. pi. 3, 1843; Hist. Fish. 



Mass. 271, pi. XXXIX, &g. 5, 1867; Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. IG, U. S. 



Nat. Mus. 39, 1883. 

 Raja torpedo Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Sec. N. Y. I. 476, 1815. 

 Tetronarce occidentalis Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 77, 



pi. XI, fig. 33, 1896; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. XVII, 89, 1898. 



Length of disk equals six sevenths of its width and more than 

 one half the total length; length of base of ventrals equals one 

 fourth the width of disk; eyes small, placed three times their 

 diameter from tip of snout, and about the same distance from 

 each other; length of first dorsal base nearly equals distance 

 between the spiracles; hight of first dorsal fin exceeds length 

 of snout; base of second dorsal scarcely more than one half the 

 length of first, the higiil; of the tin hardly two thirds of that of 



