ae ee sro ur sen on 
PTE IN rt see spaangene Pape Nea Nes 
Dr. Mitchill on a new ape! of Raja. 291 
it. When in this posture, the fish seemed capable of pre- 
senting the globular or spherical form of the a with its 
armature and prickles, to its enemies or pursue For, even 
when held in the air, its rotundity remained ane the muscles 
were relaxed by death ; and, even then, after animation was 
extinct, there was a curvature ef the rim, or periphery, 
showing its tendency to a concave figure. The only other 
individual of the species I ever saw, was one that was catched, 
in my presence, on board the boat that went to the fis shing 
banks, south-east of Sandy-Hook, on the 23d July, 1822. 
T examined it while alive, and sentbedisibly on being raised 
from the depth of five fathoms. I then named it 
Rasa Erinaceus, 
with this specific character: “having a tail bearing two 
dorsal fins, with the vestige of a third at the extremity ; 
thickly aculated on the sides, though destitute of the spines 
called stings; having a pale- ‘brown, prickly skin, over which 
dark-brown spots are distributed ; and having ‘also. a ately 
of about twenty spines on each wing, or flap, which, while 
the wings or or flap sare extended, and lie flat, are concealed 
or covered by fhe skin; but, when the wings or flaps are 
contracted, come forth and are erected like the claws of a 
cat, when they are el of arresting or tearing soft ob- 
jects presented to t 
The length of rhs aii chutcn now before me is seventeen 
inches, and the breadth nine inches anda half. The head 
is roundish, though ending in something like a pointed snout, 
The cheeks (if they may be so called) are parting projec- 
tions, of a curved form, on te sides of the sn nout, tae are 
common integuments, of echbeand fingers. The anal fins 
have no striking peculiarities: Near the base of these, and 
under the tail, the two appendages, peculiar to these crea- 
tures, proceed obliquely to the length of five inches. 
The whole body is so semi-diaphanous that the bones ean 
be discerned on holding i it up between the eye and the light. 
This quality distinguishes the marginal parts of the flaps par- 
ularly, and yet more distinctly characterizes the snout, 
