R A I A. 



517 



upper part of this fish have caused some confusion in 

 the description of it. In all cases the principal part of 

 the upper surface is smooth, and the conspicuous spots 

 vary a great deal ; at times there are only two, one 

 on each side of the ridge of the back, and near die 

 middle of its length ; at other times there are several, 

 and at other times again there are none at all. These 

 variations in the spots do not appear to depend in 

 any way upon age or sex, but the spines on the snout, 

 near the eyes, and on the anterior margins of the 

 pectoral fins, are characteristic of the adult male 

 only, and become more conspicuous with age. 



THE THORNBACK SKATE (R. clavata) is not unlike 

 the last-mentioned species in its general shape, only 

 the notches at the posterior part of the pectorals are 

 not so deep, and the ventral fins are broader. This 

 species is very common in all the British seas, and 

 more easily obtained than some of the others, though 

 not esteemed equal to them in quality ; still, how- 

 ever, the flesh is not bad, and in places where fish are 

 n<jt very abundant, or other provisions are costly, it 

 must be regarded as rather a valuable fish. 



It has a much greater tendency to the production 

 of spines and tubercles on the upper surface than any 

 of those that we have previously mentioned ; the 

 adult male has also the teeth considerably produced 

 and pointed, but that does not appear to extend to 

 the female ; the eyes and vent-holes are proportion- 

 ally larger than in most of the species, and they are 

 defended by strong and crooked spines ; the whole of 

 the upper surface is granulated with hard tubercles, 

 which have their bases polygonal or star-shaped, 

 and among these are arranged the spines from which 

 it gets the name of thornback, and which make it not 

 very pleasant to handle even after it is dead. Those 

 spines or thorns are of peculiar form, their bases are 

 oval discs; from the middle of these the thorns arise, 

 not long, but strong and sharp, and with their points 

 inclined backwards, or backwards and obliquely out- 

 wards. Their number increases as the fish gets 

 older, and their principal distribution is on the mesial 

 line of the snout, along the anterior or margins of 

 the pectorals, upon the posterior parts of those near 

 the notches, and a lew irregularly disposed on the 

 back. These strong-hooked spines are not very 

 numerous, varying from a dozen to twenty or more 

 on each side of the back, and not always sym- 

 metrically disposed on the two sides, so that their 

 number and distribution cannot be admitted as a 

 constant character. 



The spines on the ridge of the back begin a very 

 little in the rear of the vent-holes, and they are alter- 

 nately larger and smaller, but none of them are so 

 large as those on the snout and the pectoral fins ; 

 the tail is armed with three rows of spines throughout 

 its whole length, and, though individually these are 

 not large, the tail is a dangerous instrument, and 

 must be very formidable against an enemy. Defence 

 against a pursuer is obviously the use of these spines, 

 for they can do mischief only to that which comes 

 upon the animal in the rear or on the flank, the more 

 mesial ones being directed to the rear, and those on 

 the pectorals obliquely outwards. 



All the danger of enemies to which these fishes 

 are exposed must come from the plane on which they 

 swim or above it, for the whole of the under partis 

 white and smooth, and quite destitute of every kind of 

 defence; the mouth is on the under part of the body, 

 110 doubt, arid its teeth are numerous and its muscles 



powerful, but still it is an eating mouth only, and not. 

 a fighting one. What the enemies may be against 

 which the thornback especially is thus powerfully 

 armed it is not very easy to say, as a large skate, 

 even without any spines upon it, would be rather an 

 ungainly mouthful for even the largest of those fishes 

 which swallow their food and do not bite it. The 

 sharks and grampuses i)ite, it is true, and the former 

 can hold the prey with one set of teeth while they 

 use another in sawing off the portion within the 

 mouth ; hence it is probable that these are the prin- 

 cipal enemies against which the skate tribe have to 

 defend themselves. 



Armed for its defence in this formidable manner, 

 the thornback appears to have little to suffer from 

 any large enemy save man ; we say " large enemy," 

 for there are many little parasitical foes against which 

 the size, strength, and armature of a large animal are 

 of no avail. The thornback, however, appears not to 

 suffer much from any enemy, and not to feel in its 

 number the captures which are made by man. It 

 is abundant on every part of the coast adapted to the 

 habits of skate, and it is so abundant on the Cornish 

 coast that it is the ray there. It has been conjectured 

 that the name is a corrupt pronunciation of the Anglo- 

 Saxon reah (rough, the h being not only aspirated 

 but guttural) ; but there is little probability of this, 

 as the old Cornish language continued to be spoken 

 in that duchy after the Anglo-Saxon had ceased to 

 be the language of England. Autumn and winter, or 

 rather a portion of time where these meet, is under- 

 stood to be the prime season of the thornback, though 

 in the -season of production it is more abundantly 

 found on the banks ; the probability is, that it. is firm 

 in the deep water, and softer in the flesh when on the 

 shallows, where it commits the greater number of the 

 germs of its progeny to the keeping of the waters. 

 Like all the rest of the family it is a very voracious 

 fish, and not very particular in its choice. Flounders, 

 crabs, shelled mollusca, or anything that inhabits 

 below it, and can be come at, do not appear to be 

 rejected. 



STARRY RAY (R. radiata). If many of the other 

 rays are interesting from their numbers and their 

 value as an article of cheap and not unwholesome 

 food, this one has an interest of a very different cha- 

 racter. It is rather a handsome fish, not apparently 

 growing to any great size, and it is very rare. The 

 sea which it more immediately inhabits is not very 

 well known ; but, considered as a British fish, it ap- 

 pears to be of the north rather than of the south, though 

 the fishermen have no particular name for it on any 

 shore of our 'seas. 



The form of its disc is nearly that of a square ; but 

 with the three terminal angles rounded, and the sides 

 a little convex. The ground colour of the upper 

 part is pale orange brown, but is marked with spiny 

 tuber9les, differing, however, from those of the thorn- 

 back. There are no small tubercles granulating the 

 general surface, as in that ; but the spiny tubercles 

 are much more numerous : they are largest along 

 the dorsal line, but small ones alternate with the large 

 ones there ; there is one in front of each eye, a few 

 small ones along the inner margin of each eye ; two 

 or three large ones behind the vent-holes ; and some 

 more not far from the dorsal ridge, and nearly op- 

 posite the largest part .of the pectorals ; the rest of 

 the upper part is irregularly sprinkled with smaller 

 ones ; and there is a regular row of small ones run- 



