250 FISHES. 



employed to bewilder its prey. The body is smooth, the teeth small 

 and sharp. 



Several species are found in the seas of Europe confounded 

 by Linnaeus and most of his successors under the name of Raia 

 torpedo *. 



T. narke, n\ss. ; BL, 122; Rondel, 258 and 362. (The 

 Ocellated Torpedo). Number of spots varying from five to one; 

 no fleshy indentations on the edges of the spiracles. 



T. galvanii, Riss. ; Rondel. 363, 1. (The Galvanic Torpedo). 

 Seven fleshy indentations round the spiracles ; sometimes of a 

 uniform fawn colour, and sometimes marbled, dotted, or spotted 

 with blackish. 



Several others are found in foreign seas f . 

 Raia, Cuv. 



The rays, properly so called, have a rhomboidal disk, a thin tail, 

 furnished above and near its point with two small dorsals, and some- 

 times with the vestige of a caudal ; small, slender, and crowded teeth 

 in quincunx order in the jaws. Many species inhabit the seas of 

 Europe which arc not yet well determined. Their flesh, though hard, 

 is eaten. 



R. clavata, L. ; the male, Bl., 84, under the name of rubus, the 

 female. (The Thornback.) Distinguished by its roughness and 

 the thick, oval, bony tubercles, each of which is furnished with 

 a recurved spine, that are irregularly scattered over its two 

 surfaces. Their number varies greatly. 



R. rubus, L. ; Lacep., I. v (The Rough Ray), differs from 

 the Thornback in the absence of the tubercles. The male of 

 both species, however, has hooked spines on the front and angle 

 of the wings, their posterior edge being similarly furnished in 

 the female. The appendages of the male are very long and 

 complex^. 



R. batis, L. ; R. oxyrhinchus major, Rondel., 348. (The 

 Skate, or white, or ash-coloured Ray.) Superior surface of the 

 body rough, but spineless, with a single row of spines on the tail. 

 It is the largest of all the species, and is sometimes found to 



* The Torpille imlgaire a cinq taches. Torpedo narke, Riss., Rondel., 358 and 362. 



Torpedo unimaculata, Riss., pi. iii, f. 3. 



T. marmorata, Id., lb., f. 4, Rondel., 362. 



T. galvanii, Id., lb., f. 5, Rondel., 363, f. 1. 



•f Temerec, Russel, I ; — Nallatemeree, Id., 2 ; — the Raie chinoise, Lacep., I, ii, 2. 

 Both of them being the Raia timlei, BL, Schn., 359. 



X N. B. The R. batis, Penn. Brit. Zool., No. 30, is nothing more than this 

 rubus, Lacep. The rubtts, Bl., 84, which is the R. clavata, Will., is, if not a species, 

 at least a variety remarkable for the tubercles that are scattered over both surfaces. 

 There is also a variety, R. oculata aspera, Rondel., 351, marked with an ocellated 

 spot on each wing. 



