274 



Shark and Company 



Sea. It weighs up to at least 500 pounds, is known to reach 7% feet 

 from wing-tip to wing-tip— and it carries as many as 5 stings at the 

 base of its long tail. 



Russell J. Coles, who studied the sharks and rays in North Carolina 

 waters for many years, told of a Spotted Duck-Billed ray which "sud- 

 denly threw its body against me and drove its poisoned sting into my 

 leg above the knee for more than two inches, striking the bone, and 

 producing instantly a pain more horrible than I had thought possible that 

 man could suffer." He treated the wound immediately and recovered. 



Coles also reported that "in giving birth to its young, the female ray 

 leaps high in the air." Although ichthyologists are generally skeptical 

 about suggestions that these rays— or any other— find it necessary to 

 leap into the air to give birth, there is no doubt about the Spotted 

 Duck-Billed ray's prowess as a jumper. In fact, in Australia it is some- 

 times called the Jumping ray. 



The Spotted Duck-Billed ray (also known as the Spotted Whip ray 

 and the Spotted Eagle ray) seems to use its peculiar projecting mandible 

 as a spade to dig out shellfish from sandy bottoms. With its powerful 

 jaws, it cracks clamshells and extracts the clams so efficiently that it can 

 swallow the clams intact. Like several other species of ray, the Spotted 

 Duck-Billed sometimes lets out a sound resembling a bark when cap- 

 tured. 



Family Rhinopteridae—Cow-l<^osED Rays 

 The odd, bovine nose of these rays sets them apart from the other 

 larger rays, though they have the familiar winged shape. All of the 





"\ 



Cow-nosed ray (Rhinoptera honasus) . 



Courtesy, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology 



