Fig. 130.— The Saw-fish. 



CHONDROPTERYGII BRAxNCHIIS FIXIS. 333 



.S. atiffehts, the Common Angel-fish, grows seven or eight feet long ; is very voracious, and one of the ugliest 

 of fishes. 



Pristis, the Saw-fish, form a fourth genus. They 

 h;ive a long body, like the Sharks, with the gill- 

 openings below; the snout extended like the 

 blade of a sword, and with strong and trenchant 

 teeth like spines on both edges. This formidable 

 weapon gives name to the fishes, and with it tliey 

 will attack the largest Whales, and inflict dreadful 

 wounds. They sometimes attain twelve or fifteen 

 feet in length. 



Jiaia, the Skate, [or rather, perhaps, Raiaidcs, the Skate family,] are less numerous than the Sharks. 

 They have the body flattened till, from its union with the large and fleshy pectorals, it forms a disc. 

 These pectorals are joined to each other before the snout ; extend behind as far as the base of the 

 ventrals, and have their humeral bones articulated with the spine behind the gills. E)'es and spiracles 

 iibove ; mouth, nostrils, and gill-openings below ; and dorsal fins almost always on the tail. Eggs 

 brown, leathery, and square, y/ith points at the angles. They consist of the following subgenera : 



Rhinohafis, connect the Sharks and Rays by their thick fleshy tail, and two distinct dorsals and a caudal. 

 The rhomboids formed by the snout and pectorals is sharper in front and narrower than in the ordinary Rays ; 

 but excepting this they have all the characters of these, and their crowded teeth are placed in fives, like little 

 paving-stones. Some inhabit the Mediterranean ; some the Atlantic ; and one species from Brazil is said, but 

 not proved, to be electric. Rhina differs from Rhinobatis in having a stout, broad, and rounded snout. 



Torpedo.— IsW short, but tolerably fleshy ; disc of the body nearly circular, the anterior edge being formed by 

 two productions of the muzzle, which extend outwards and join the pectorals. The space between the pectorals 

 and the head and gills is filled by an electric apparatus, consisting of numerous cells formed like honeycombs, 

 and subdivided by lateral diaphragms, in the intervals of which a mucous fluid is contained. This electric or 

 galvanic apparatus is, like that in Gymnotus, amply supplied with nerves. The shocks given by the Torpedo, 

 though smart, are not so benumbing as those of Gymnotus. They probably enable it to stun its prey. The body 

 is smooth, and the teeth small and pointed. Two species, one with ocellated spots, and another with seven fleshy 

 protuberances round the spiracles, with the back marbled, sprinkled, or spotted with brown, were long confounded 

 with this one. There are also several species in the foreign seas. The Common Torpedo is occasionally found on 

 the Channel coast of England. 



Raia, the Rays properly so called, or Skate, have the disc rhomboidal ; the tail slender ; with two small dor- 

 sals on the upper part, near the point, and sometimes the vestige of a caudal ; and their teeth are small, and 

 ranged in quincunx on the jaws. The European seas furnish many species, some of which are not yet well deter- 

 mined. Their flesh is rather hard when recent, but wholesome. [The species found in the British seas are as 

 follows : R. chagrinea, the Shagreen Ray ; R. baits, the Blue or common Skate ; R. oxyrhynchns, the Sharp- 

 nosed Ray ; R. marginata, the Margined Ray ; R. maculata, the Homelin or Spotted Ray ; R. microcellaia, the 

 Small-eyed Ray ; R. clavata, the Thornback ; and R. radiata, the Starry-ray.— I'ajre//'* British Fishes.} 



Tri/gon, the Sting Ray, has on the tail a strong spine notched on both sides ; teeth similar to the other Rays ; 

 the disc obtuse forwards, and the tail often without any fin save a rudimental membrane. R. acanthus resembles 

 Trygon, but has the tail long and slender, without fin or spine. 



Miliobatis, the Eagle Ray, has the snout projecting beyond the long pectorals, which extend outwards like 

 wings; the jaws have broad flat teeth like a pavement ; the tail is long and slender, having a spine on the upper 

 part near the base, and not far behind the small dorsal. In some there are two or more spines. 



Cephaloptera, has the small tail, the spine, and the small dorsal of the last subgenus : but the pectorals are 

 more extended in proportion to the length of the body ; the head is truncated in front, and a lobe of each pectoral 

 advances on each side of it, making the fish seem as if it had horns. 



THE SECOND FAMILY OF THE CHONDROPTERYGII BRANCHIIS FIXIS. 

 Cyclcstomata (with the Mouth formed into a Sucker). 

 With respect to their skeleton these are the least perfect of fishes, and, indeed, of all vertebrated 

 animals. They have no pectorals or ventrals ; their body ends in a circular fleshy lip, with a cartilaginous 

 ring supporting it, and formed of the soldered palatals and inandibularies. The substance of all the 

 vertebrae is traversed by a single tendinous cord, filled internally with a mucilaginous fluid, without 

 contractions and enlargements, which reduces the vertebrae to cartilaginous rays not easily distinguish- 

 able from each other. The annular portion is rather more solid than the rest, but not cartilaginous 

 through its whole circle. They have no ordinary ribs, but the gill-ribs, noticed as rudimental in the 

 Sharks and Rays, are more developed and united with each other in this family into a kind of cage, but 

 there are no solid gill-arches. Instead of being comb-shaped, as in other fishes, the gills have the 



