THE STIXG RAY. 565 



though with reference to the season. Early in the 

 spring, say in March, it goes up in the shallows, 

 where it appears to remain the greater part of the 

 summer, and does not return to the deeps until the 

 setting in of the winter. Of all its congeners, it seems 

 most capable of enduring brackish water, as evidenced by 

 its being so frequently met with in the Sound, and in 

 the Great and Little Belts. In its stomach I have found 

 several kinds of crustaceans, belonging to the genera 

 Palfemon, Hippolyte, Crangon, &c. ; various sorts of 

 worms, especially Nereids ; as also the remains of small 

 fish, but the species were not distinguishable." 



The breeding habits of this fish are not exactly known. 

 It is thought, however, that the females deposit their 

 eggs, or rather " purses," in shoal water throughout the 

 summer, and that the young first appear late in the 

 autumn. This inference is drawn because during the 

 winter one occasionally finds young ones of from three to 

 five inches in length near the shore. 



The Sting Ray (Spjut-Rocka, or spear-ray, Sw. ; 

 Pil-Jloc/ce, i. e, arrow (tailed) ray, Dan.; R. Pastinaca, 

 Linn.), so named from its spine being capable of in- 

 flicting a severe wound, though not a poisonous one, 

 has only in one instance been identified in the Scandi- 

 navian seas. This was some twenty years ago, near 

 Kullen, on the coast of Scania. The specimen was a 

 small one, measuring only fifteen inches ; but in its 

 proper home, believed to be the Mediterranean, this 

 fish attains to a much larger size. Northern naturalists, 

 I should observe, are quite puzzled to understand from 

 whence Yarrell obtained the extraordinary information 

 that the sting ray ranges to a high degree of north lati- 

 tude on the coast of Norway. 



The Sea Lamprey (Hafs-Nejonoyon, or the sea nine- 

 eyes ; Sugare, or sucker, Sw. ; Hav-Neyennjen, or sea 



