CHAPTEE XI. 



The EiTS. 



; 



To the class of Selachians the rays also belong, and many species 

 of them are found on the Florida coast, from the enormous devil- 

 fish, which reaches a width of eighteen or twenty feet, to the little 

 skate, or old maid, one foot in lenjrth. 



i That which we principally meet with, the stingray, although not 

 properly a game fish, yet as it often affords the angler considerable 

 sport, although involuntarily, we must include it in our list, and 

 under the name of stingray, stingaree, or clam-cracker — Dasyatis 

 centrums — (Mitchell.) It is thus described : " Disk a little broader 

 than long, its anterior angle obtuse. Tail relatively stout, about 

 one-third longer than the disk. Width of mouth about half its dis- 

 tance from the tip of the snout. Caudal spine one and a-half times 

 width of mouth. Spiracles very large. Color uniform brownish. 

 Length eight feet." — Jordan and Gilberfs Synopsis. 



To this I should add that the stingray has a pavement of enam. 

 bled teeth, with which it can crush clams or oysters, and a bone five 

 or six inches long attached to the tail, one-third the distance from 

 its extremity ; this bone is barbed like a fish-hook along its sides, 

 and can be erected or depressed by the fish. When the ray strikes 

 its enemy it draws the long whip-like tail across the object, the 

 bone tears through the flesh making a fearful wound, the danger of 

 "which seems to be aggi-avated by the poisonous nature of a black 

 •slimy matter which covers the bone ; however this may be, the 

 "wound is exeremely painful, and very dangerous, often producing 



