380 CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



I have been told by a fisherman that he has seen an Angel- 

 fish which was taken in our bay many years ago. — Dr G. John- 

 ston. Occasionally brought in by the trawlers and fishermen — 

 sometimes three feet in length. R. 



B. BATOIDEI. Rays. 



Fam. TORPEDINID^. Electeic Rays. 



Torpedo hebetans, Lowe. Toepedo. 



Raja Torpedo, Yarr., Brit. Fish., 1st ed., Yol. 2, p. 410. 

 Torpedo, Couch, Brit. Fish., Yol. 1, p. 119, pi. 30. 



A specimen of that very rare fish Torpedo vulgaris, or Electric 

 Bay, was taken in Embleton Bay, in the month of June last. — 

 R. Embleton, Berwick Trans., Yol. 3, p. 231. There is some 

 uncertainty as to which species the Torpedo taken in Embleton 

 Bay really was. 



In Land and Water, Yol. 7, p. 26, Jan. 9, 1869, Mr. Jeremiah 

 Wilson, of Stockton-on-Tees, writes : — " I have taken two Tor- 

 pedoes in the estuary of the Tees. You say the one you dis- 

 sected had nothing in its stomach. I was curious enough to see 

 what those I caught were living upon, so I put my knife into 

 one, and took from it an eel 2 lbs. in weight and a flounder 

 nearly a pound. The next one I opened also, and was astonished 

 to find in him a salmon between 4 lb. and 5 lb. weight ; and 

 what I was more astonished at was that none of the fish had a 

 blemish of any description, showing that your idea of the fish 

 killing his prey with the electrical force is quite correct." — 

 Nat. Hist, of Brit. Fishes, by Frank Buckland, p. 230. 



Mr. Wilson's voracious Torpedoes from the estuary of the Tees 

 are evidently a remarkable case of mistaken identity. There 

 cannot be the least doubt that the two fishes found, and whose 

 stomachs were examined so carefully by Mr. Wilson, were good- 

 sized specimens of the Eishing-frog, which very much resembles 

 in general outline the Torpedo Skate. The mouth of even large 

 specimens of the Torpedo is very narrow, and armed with very 

 fine-pointed teeth, and certainly not large and wide enough to 

 swallow either a one-pound flounder or a small salmon ; while, 



