STING RAY. Trytjon vcutinaca 



tail nearly touches the snout, and then, with a sudden fling, lashes out with the tail in the 

 direction of the offender, never failing to inflict a most painful stroke if the blow should 

 happen to take effect. 



The colour of the Thornback Skate is brown, diversified with many spots of brownish 

 grey, and the under parts are pure white. 



The COMMON SKATE, sometimes called the TINKEE, is so well known that only a very 

 short description is needed. 



This fish is found on all our coasts in great plenty, and sometimes attains to a really 

 large size, a fine specimen having been known to weigh two hundred pounds. The 

 fishermen have a custom of calling the female Skate a Maid, and the male, in consequence 

 of the two elongated appendages at the base of the tail, is called the Three-Tailed Skate. 

 It is a very voracious creature, eating various kinds of fish, crustaceans, arid other 

 inhabitants of the deep. 



The colour of this species is greyish brown on the upper surface, and a little reddish 

 brown and black-brown are found on the edges of the broad fins. Below, it is greyish 

 white, over which divers darker lines are drawn, and upon which are scattered a great 

 number of bluish spots with small sharp points among them. 



TEEEIBLE as is the armed tail of the thornback skate, and severe as are the wounds 

 that can be inflicted by it, the STING RAY is furnished with a weapon even more to be 

 dreaded, and capable of causing a still more serious injury. 



The tail itself of this species is long, flexible, whip-like and smooth, so that were it 

 unaided by any additional armature, it could only inflict a sharp and stinging blow, which, 

 however painful, would do no more damage than the cut of a horsewhip. As, however, 

 may be seen in the illustration, the tail is further armed with a projecting bony spine, very 

 sharp at the point, and furnished along both edges with sharp cutting teeth. When 

 attacked or irritated, the Sting Ray suddenly strikes its whip-like tail around the offender 

 in lasso fashion, and holding him tightly against the barbed spine, wields the latter with 

 such strength and rapidity that it lacerates the flesh to a frightful and dangerous extont 

 in some cases even causing the death of the victim. 



