CHAPTER III: RAYS. 



General features of the Rays. Guitar-fishes. Saw-fishes. 

 Electric Rays. True Rays. Skates and Rays. Sting Rays. 

 Whip-tailed Sting Rays. Eagle Rays. Spotted Eagle Ray. 

 Cow-nosed Rays or Whipparees. Sea Devils or Devil-fishes. 

 Manta or Greater Devil-fish. Small or Lesser Devil-fish. 



To most people the term " ray " will conjure up a picture 

 of a much flattened fish, with a rounded or quadrangular 

 disc-like body, from which projects a stumpy tail. Used 

 collectively, the term " Rays " covers all the members of 

 the second great Order of existing Selachians, the order 

 Hypotremata, a group which includes a large number of very 

 diverse creatures, some of them quite unlike the well-known 

 ray already described. Indeed, as will be shown in this 

 chapter, the Order includes an almost complete gradation 

 of types, starting with those which are still almost shark-like 

 in outward appearance, and ending with specialized types 

 that are as far removed from their shark ancestors as any 

 fishes could be. 



The principal differences between the Sharks on the one 

 hand and the Rays on the other have been already touched 

 upon in Chapter I, and we may notice at once that practically 

 all these are related to a change in the manner of life. Rays, 

 in other words, are simply sharks that have become specially 

 modified to fit them for a new mode of life — a life spent 



