328 



FISHES. 



[Chap. X. 



less, as the ray has no gland for secreting any venomous 

 fluid. The apprehension may, however, have originated 

 in the fact that a lacerated wound such as would be 

 produced by a serrated spine, is not unlikely to assume 

 a serious character, under the influence of a tropical 

 climate. The species figured on the last page is brownish- 

 olive on the upper surface, with numerous greenish- 

 white round spots, darkening towards the edges. The 

 anterior annulations of the tail are black and white, the 

 posterior entirely black. Its mouth is transverse and 

 paved with a band of flattened teeth calculated to crush 

 the hard shells of the animals on which it feeds. It 

 moves slowly along the bottom in search of its food, 

 which consists of Crustacea and mollusca, and seems 

 to be unable to catch fishes or other quickly moving 

 animals. Specimens have been taken near Ceylon, of 

 six feet in width. Like most deep-sea fishes, the ray 

 has a wide geographical range, and occurs not only in 

 all the Indian Ocean, but also in the tropical tracts of 

 the Atlantic. 



Another armed fish, renowned since the times of 

 iElian and Pliny for its courage in attacking the whale, 

 and even a ship, is the sword-fish (Xiphias gladius). 1 

 Like the thunny and bonito, it is an inhabitant of the 

 deeper seas, and, though known in the Mediterranean, 

 is chiefly confined to the tropics. The dangerous weapon 

 with which nature has equipped it is formed by the pro- 

 longation and intertexture of the bones of the upper jaw 

 into an exceedingly compact cylindrical protuberance, 



1 JElian tells a story of a ship similar accident on the coast of 



in the Black Sea, the bottom of Mauritania. In the British Mu- 



which was penetrated by the sword seum there is a specimen of a plank 



of a Xiphias (L. xiv. c. 23); and of oak, pierced by a sword-fish, and 



Pliny (L. xxxii. c. 8) speaks of a still retaining the broken weapon. 



