340 PISHES AND FISHING. 



43. RAIA MACTJLATA. Montag. (Rog ; Scate ; Spot 

 ted Ray.} Body, rhomboid, horizontally flat on both 

 sides; snout narrow, pointed, blunt ; mouth, nostrils, 

 and gills on the under surface of the body. Teeth, 

 in many rows in both jaws, sharp, pointed, conical, 

 and curved in the male ; paved, broad, and flat in the 

 female. Tail long, thin, three-sided, furnished all 

 along its edges with three lines of strong, hooked, 

 but irregular spines, and with two small dorsal fins 

 towards its end. Both surfaces more or less smooth, 

 but snout and upper margin of the large pectoral fins 

 armed with clusters of hooked spines in the male, 

 and with curved, tubercular denticles in the female. 

 Male, provided with cylindrical, cartilaginous appen 

 dages (claspers) to its ventural fin. Female larger 

 than the male. Length, two and a half feet and 

 more. Colour above, pale yellowish brown, sprinkled 

 with numerous irregular, faint, bluish grey spots. 

 Under-surface, somewhat rough, greyish white, tinged 

 with purple. 



A good table fish, and a forerunner of bad weather. 

 It is caught with the net. 



To the number of edible fishes enumerated here, I 

 feel bound to add one which I never saw, but which 

 I introduce on the incontestable authoritj 7 - of Dr. A. 

 Smith, who has given the following description of it 

 in the first volume of the " South African Quarterly 



