THE SHARKS AND RAYS 103 



" Arreghonda," of the Portuguese, who catch it for the sake 

 of the skin, liver, and flesh. The Irish example measured. 

 41^ in., and was of a mahogany brown, with strong spines 

 before the dorsal fin, which are said, however, to be included 

 within the skin in some species of the genus. 



Rhinidae 



The sole existing species of this family is the Monk-fish, 

 or Angel-fish {Rhina squatina), which may be regarded as a 

 form of considerable antiquity, one of the earliest branches, 

 in fact, of the great group of sharks, and retaining almost 

 unaltered the form and peculiarities that characterised it in 

 bygone ages. This is probably the more correct view than 

 to regard the fish as a transition between the sharks and 

 rays, for in the first place it belongs considerably more to the 

 former group than to the latter, and in the second the 

 transitional characters would have to be traced back to 

 the spinous family, of which the spur-dog is our common 

 representative. 



The monk- fish is familiar on most parts of the coast, and 

 is a frequent object of unintentional capture on the long-lines, 

 as well as in both trawl and drift-nets. In form it suggests 

 the rays, but in all its important characters it follows the 

 sharks, as also in its manner of bringing forth living young. 

 The feature that will strike the observer as most aberrant is 

 the rounded snout, and in this, as in the torpedo among rays, 

 we have a departure from the more general shovel-shaped snout 

 of elasmobranchs. Moreover, though the pectoral fins are 

 enormously expanded, so as to have suggested the wings of 

 an angel or the cowl of a monk, they are not joined to the 

 head in the manner that forms the disc in rays, and the mouth 

 being situated at the front of the head, and not below, as in 

 rays, gives a further sharklike appearance. Small fringes of 

 skin in front of the snout suggests the possibility of the fish 



