FISHES OP XKW YOKK 51 



The baru-doui- skate reaches a length exceeding 4 feet; it is 

 used to some extent for food. The species has been fallen in 

 Gravesend bay in Octobei-. It sntiV^-s in captivity for the want 

 of sand and mud and because of tlie lack of suitable food, its 

 average duration of life is 3 or 4 months. 



Mitchill described an individual measuring 49 inches which 

 was caught at a wharf in the East river Nov. 5, 1815. At Woods 

 Hole Mass. it is common in spring and fall, rare in summer. 



Family N^RcoB>s.'riDAB 

 Electric Raifs 

 Genus tetronarce Gill 

 Rays with a large electric organ composed of many hexagonal 

 tubes between the pectoral tins and the head; disk very broad, 

 abruptly contracted at the tail; two dorsal fins, the first much 

 the larger, its origin not far in advance of the end of the ven- 

 trals; caudal tin well developed; ventral fins large, separate; 

 spiracles large, oblong, well behind the eyes, with entire edges; 

 mouth small; teeth sharp; skin smooth, i^eas of Europe and 

 America. 



27 Tetronarce occidentalis (Storer) 



Torpedo: Cramp Fish; Niimh Fish 



Torix'ilo occidentalis Stoker, Am. Jour, Sci. Arts, l(i5, pi. 3, 1843; Hist. Fish. 



Mass. 271, pi. XXXIX. tig. 5, 1S67; Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. IG, U. S. 



Nat. Mus. 39, 18S3. 

 Hit id torpedo Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soo. N. Y. I, 476, 1815. 

 Tetronarce occidentalis Jordan & Evermann. Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. 77, 



pi. XI, fig. 33, 1896; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. XVII, 89, 1898. 



Length of disk (Mjuals six sevenths of its width and nior<' llian 

 one half the total length; length of base of ventrals equals one 

 fourth the width of disk; eyes small, phiced three times their 

 dhimeter from ti]> of snout, and about the same distance from 

 each other; length of first dorsal base nearly equals distance 

 between the spiracles; hight of first dorsal fin exceeds h'ngth 

 of snout; base of second dorsal scarcely more than one half th<- 

 length of first, the hight of the flu hardly two thirds of that of 



