2990 Dr. Mitchill on a new species of Raja. 
le peuple un sujet d’effroi.”. Mr. Marsham mentions, that 
several individuals of the Urocerus Gigas issued from the 
planks forming the floor of abed-room. _A solitary individual 
of the U. psyliius was taken in the neighbourhood of Edin- 
burgh, which very likely earn its way into this country by a 
similar means. 
(ICHTHYOLOGY 
ee oe 
ArT. XH — The Hedgehog-Ray—a species of Fish taken oc- 
castonally near New-York, in the Atlantic Ocean, and now, 
as ts belveved, sha the ale time described ; By Samuen L. 
Mircuitt, M. aad . D., &e. ead before the New- 
York Literary and Pion eins June 10, 1824.) 
Tue fish brought me this mornir 
ruff, was taken by him with a hoo 
Barnegat, where the water was sevea fethouté > a It had 
been wounded so slightly that he kept it alive for several 
days, and he supposed it might have been living yet, had it 
not perished in consequence ‘of the highly electrical state of 
the atmosphere during the late shower, accompanied by re- 
markably bright lightnins and loud thunder. His belief is, 
according to the opivion prevailing among fishermen, that the 
thunder killed the fish 
The animal undoubtedly belongs to the great family of 
Raga, which comprehends the Rays, Skates, Torpedoes, and 
most of the other Paar flat fishes not appertaining to 
the Pleuronectes, or flounder tr 
n from its stiene it had the appearance, for 
some minutes, while its vital energy remained, and it was 
yet pendant from the hook, of a hedgehog : that is to say, a 
contraction of the muscles had taken place, by which the ap- 
‘Proximated margin, or circumference, from the several parts, 
resembled a bowl, or basket, of which the belly was the in- 
T, and the back the outer ada: The tail, at the time, was 
incurvated so much as to enter the mouth, or project beyond 
coe aS He 
Me Sc | SATS ee pes 
