THE RAY. 



277 



as well as the modern : and they have deliv- 

 ered many tremendous fables of its astonish- 

 ing effects. Pliny, JElian, and Oppian, have 

 supplied it with a venom that affects even the 

 inanimate creation : trees that are struck by 



that weighed two hundred pounds: it is very voracious, 

 and Mr Couch has known five different species of fish, 

 besides Crustacea, taken from the stomach of a single 

 individual. There is reason to believe that the true skate 

 produces its young later in the season than either the 

 thornback or the homelyn. 



The breadth of the body is to its length nearly as four 

 to three ; the form of the nose conical: the lines from 

 the extreme lateral angle of each pectoral fin being 

 nearly straight, similar lines taken in a direction back- 

 ward to a point on the tail two inches below the end of 

 the ventral fins, would form a true rhomb: the eyes are 

 slightly elevated above the line of the upper surface of 

 the body, with a short, hard tubercle in the front of each, 

 and a second on the inner side of each ; the irides yel- 

 low ; the temporal orifices valvular, and placed close 

 behind : the dorsal ridge of the body without spines till 

 near the origin of the ventral fins ; then commence a 

 single row on the centre, reaching along the tail as far as 

 the first of the two small fins, all the points of the spines 

 directed backwards ; one spine between the two small 

 dorsal fins. On the sides of the tail of a female of small 

 size there were no lateral spines ; but in a young male 

 of the same size, there were several lateral spines on 

 each side, the points of which were directed forwards, 

 and are in that respect characteristic of this species. The 

 colour of the upper surface of the body and tail grayish 

 brown ; the margins anterior to the angles of the pec- 

 toral fins tinged with reddish brown ; those behind the 

 angles brownish black, darker than the body: the colour 

 on the under surface is sooty white, with dark lines in 

 various directions, and numerous blue specks with small 

 eharp points disposed among them over the surface. The 

 nostrils are valvular, half the width of the mouth in ad- 

 vance of each of its angles ; the mouth rather wide ; the 

 teeth in this species are sharp in both sexes when adult, 

 the inner angles of the central teeth beginning to elon- 

 gate in specimens when they are about twelve inches in 

 breadth across the body. 



The Sharp-Nosed Ray This species, says Mr Couch, 

 " may be easily recognised by its sharp snout, by the 

 waved line of the margin of the body from the snout to 

 the extremity of the expansion, and by its pure white 

 colour on the lower surface. It is the largest of the 

 British rays; for though in length and breadth it may 

 not exceed the common skate, its superior thickness 

 renders it heavier." 



Colonel Montagu, in the Wernerian Memoirs, says, 

 by way o' further distinction, the snout in this species 

 is slender, the lateral margins in a moderately-sized fish 

 running nearly parallel to each other for three or four 

 inches at the extremity. The skin is smooth, with 

 the exception of the spines on the upper surface, pecu- 

 liar to the males, the colour a plain brown without spots 

 or lines, and never so dark as the skate last described, 

 with wh : ch it is sometimes confounded. The teeth of 

 the males, according to a specimen of ifce mouth very 

 kindly sent to me by Mr Couch, are longer, more pointed, 

 and sharper than those of any other specier I have had an 

 opportunity of examining. The tail is ai med with three 

 rows of spines. Mr Couch states that the smaller-sized 

 specimens are taken throughout the year; but those which 

 are larger keep in deep waters, and are only taken in sum- 

 mer and autumn. The French are great consumers of 

 skate, and this species is their favourite fish : their boats 

 come to Plymouth during Lent to purchase skate, which 

 they preserve fresh and moist during the run back to their 

 own coast by keeping them covered with wet sand. 



it instantly lose their verdure, and rocks 

 themselves are incapable of resisting the 

 potent poison. The enchantress Circe armed 

 her son with a spear headed with the spine 

 of the trygon, as the most irresistible wea- 

 pon she could furnish him with ; a weapon 

 that soon after was to be the death of his own 

 father. 



" That spears and darts," says Mr Pennant, 

 " might in very early times have been headed 

 with this bone instead of iron, we have no 

 doubt. The Americans head their arrows 

 with the bones of fishes to this day ; and, 

 from their hardness and sharpness, they are 

 no contemptible weapons.^ But that this 

 spine is possessed of those venomous qualities 

 ascribed to it, we have every reason to doubt ; 

 though some men of high reputation, and the 

 whole body of fishermen, contend for its ven- 

 omous effects. It is, in fact, a weapon of 

 offence belonging to this animal, and capable, 

 from its barbs, of inflicting a very terrible 

 wound, attended with dangerous symptoms ; 

 but it cannot be possessed of any poison, as 

 the spine has no sheath to preserve the sup- 



This species is the white skate of the Orkneys, and of 

 Scotland generally ; and is said to have been taken on 

 the south-east coast of Ireland. 



The Thornback. The thornback exhibits very marked 

 distinguishing characters, and being also a very com- 

 mon fish, is one of the best known of the species of rays, 



a term which Mr Couch considers to be derived from 

 the Anglo-Saxon Reho,' which means 'rough,' and is 

 particularly appropriate to the thornback, which, on the 

 Cornish coasts, is pre-eminently distinguished as the ray. 

 The thornback is also taken commonly both on the coast 

 of Scotland and Ireland. From the good quality of the 

 flesh of this fish, and the immense quantity taken every 

 year, the thornback, and its female, the maid, is one of 

 the most valuable of the species. Mr Couch says that 

 the flesh takes salt well, and in this preserved state 

 affords the poor fishermen and their families many whole- 

 some meals when stormy weather prevents them obtain- 

 ing fresh supplies. The thornback is taken in the great- 

 est abundance during spring and summer, because the 

 fish then frequent sandy bottoms in shallower water and 

 nearer the shore than usual, for the purpose of depositing 

 their eggs ; but the flesh of the thornback at this season 

 is not, as before noticed, so firm as in autumn and winter. 

 It is in the best condition for table about November. 

 Their food is various other fish, particularly flatfish, 

 testaceous mollusca, and Crustacea. Yarrell't British 

 Fishes, f'ol. II. 



