668 



The Living Animals of the World 



\_MUjord-on-lSea. 



HORNED OX-RAY, Oli DEVIL-FISH. 



This species and its allies attain enormous proportions. One taken at Barbadoes required seven 



yoke of oxen to draw it. 



late Matthias Dunn of Meva- 

 gissey seriously urged on the 

 Admiralty to dynamite them 

 in the .interests of the fishing 

 industry. Most of the sharks 

 deposit their eggs in the 

 curious oblong vessels known 

 by those who pick up the 

 _^^fi disused cases on the fore- 



^^C shore as " purses " ; and 



.^^ "\-. these attach themselves to 



.-J| ^,- ;* rocks and stones by long 



^^ W0|^ tendrils that cling to every 



support. A number of 

 species (the PORBEAGLE and 

 TOPE among British kinds), 

 however, bring forth their 

 young alive. 



Between the Sharks and 

 Kays there is a curious and 

 interesting link in the form 

 of the MONK-FISH, or ANGEL- 

 FISH, which is common on 

 all sandy shores, and a frequent 

 victim of the trawl. Such local names as Mongrel-skate and Shark-ray indicate a widespread 

 acceptance of its intermediate position between the two groups under notice. Like some 

 of the sharks already noticed, it produces living young, and its maximum size may be 

 set down as at any rate over 7 feet. The writer measured and weighed one trawled in 

 Bournemouth Bay during the summer of 1896. Its length was nearly 4 feet, and its weighl 

 rather less than 50 Ibs. 

 Like many of the rays, this 

 species feeds to a great 

 extent on flat-fishes. 



In outward form the 

 monk-fish, though it is in 

 reality more nearly allied to 

 the sharks, brings us by an 

 easy transition to the flattened 

 RAYS, with their long whip- 

 like tails and pointed snouts. 

 There are a dozen, or rather 

 more if we count casual 

 visitors, of these skates and 

 rays in British seas, the 

 largest being the great EAGLE- 

 RAY, examples of which have 

 been recorded of the enormous 

 weight of 1,000 Ibs. Many 

 of the smaller kinds are 



Studded With Sharp Spines, Plioto by Wf S avUU-Kenl, F.Z.S.l [MUford-on-Sca. 



curved in some species, and 

 the THORNBACK owes to these 





pi i0 toi y w.samiie-K e nt,F.z.s.] 



WHIP-TAILED STING-RAY. 



Sting-rays are abundant in tropical seas. 



