668 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Photo by W. Savillt-Kint, F.Z.S.] [Milferd-en-St 



HORNED OX-RAY, OR DEVIL-FISH 



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

 yoke of oxen to dra-w 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 

 disused cases on the fore- 

 shore as "purses"; and 

 these attach themselves to 

 rocks and stones by long 

 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 

 Rays there is a curious and 

 interesting link in the form 

 ofthe MONK-FISH, or ANGEL- 



FISH, which is common on 

 all sandy shores, and a fre- 

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

 spread 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 weight 

 rather less than 50 Ibs. 

 Like many of the rays, this 

 species feeds to a great ex- 

 tent 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 visi- 

 tors, 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, ph,u b, w. savW f .K,nt, F.Z.S.-} 



curved in some species, and WHIP-TAILED STING-RAY 



the THORNBACK Owes tO Sting-rays are abundant in tropical seas 



