540 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Ray-fish of all kinds are inhabitants of the deep sea, but they 
change according to the seasons. While stormy weather prevails, 
they hide themselves in the depth of the ocean, where they lie in 
ambush, creeping along the bottom. But they do not always live 
at the bottom. They rise occasionally to the surface far from the 
shore, eagerly chasing other inhabitants of the deep, lashing the 
water with their formidable tails and fins, springing out of the water, 
and making it foam again under their gambols. 
When pursuing their prey the rays employ their great pectoral 
fins, which resemble wings, and are aided by a very delicate and 
mobile tail ; they beat the waters in order to fall unexpectedly upon 
their prey, as the eagle swoops down upon its victim. It may thus 
be called the king of fishes, as the eagle is the king of birds. 
The family Zorpedinéde contains the genus Torpedo. The Electric 
Ray, Zorpedo marmorata (Fig. 360), has considerable analogy with 
the Ray. Its flattened body forms a roundish disc, beyond which its 
rays form large pectoral fins ; but the humeral girdle which carries 
* them, carries also, ina great hollow, a most singular organic apparatus, 
which possesses the property of producing violent electrical commo- 
tions. This apparatus is placed in the interval between the end of 
the muzzle and the extremity of the fin, and completes the rounded 
disc of the body. The mouth is small, the slit crosswise ; the jaws 
naked ; the teeth in squares of five. The eyes are small; behind 
them are two star-like spiracles. On the lower or ventral surface 
there are two rows of small transverse slits, openings of the branchial 
sacs, like those of the rays. The tail is thick, short, and conical, 
carrying part of the ventral, and terminating in a sort of caudal fin. 
On the back are two small, soft, and adipose fins. The skin is 
smooth ; the colour varies with the species ; generally it is reddish- 
brown, with eye-like spots of a deep blue in the centre, sometimes 
azure, and surrounded by a great brownish circle, the spots being 
five or six. These curious fishes are found in the Channel and on 
the shores of the Mediterranean. 
The electrical effects produced on the fisherman who seize them 
were noted from early times ; but Redi, the Italian naturalist of the 
seventeenth century, was the first who studied them scientifically. 
He caught and landed one of them with every precaution. “I 
had scarcely touched and pressed it with my hand,” says the Italian 
naturalist, “than I experienced a tingling sensation, which extended 
to my-arms and shoulders, which was followed by a disagreeable 
trembling, with a painful ’and acute sensation in the elbow joint, 
which made me withdraw my arm immediately.” 
