CHONDROPTERYGII BRANCHIIS FIXIS. 
333 
il, 
i 
S. angdus, the Common Angel-fish, grows seven or eight feet long ; is very voracious, and one of the ugliest 
! of fishes. 
i Pristis, the Saw-fish, form a fourth genus. They 
i have a long body, like the Sharks, with the gill- 
■; openings below ; the snout extended like the 
: blade of a sword, and with strong and trenchant 
ij teeth like spines on both edges. This formidable 
:jl weapon gives name to the fishes, and with it they 
|j will attack the largest Whales, and inflict dreadful 
wounds. They sometimes attain twelve or fifteen 
;! feet in length. 
I Raia, the Skate, [or rather, perhaps, Raiaidce, the Skate family,] are less numerous than the Sharks. 
1:1 They have the body flattened till, from its union with the large and fleshy pectorals, it forms a disc. 
|| These pectorals are joined to each other before the snout ; extend behind as far as the base of the 
II ventrals, and have their humeral bones articulated with the spine behind the gills. Eyes and spiracles 
|| above ; mouth, nostrils, and gill-openings below ; and dorsal fins almost always on the tail. Eggs 
I brovrn, leathery, and square, with points at the angles. They consist of the following subgenera : 
Fig. 150. — The Saw-fish. 
;|! 
i| 
Rhbiobatis, connect the Sharks and Rays by their thick fleshy tail, and two distinct dorsals and a caudal. 
The rhomboids formed by the snout and pectorals is sharper in front and narrower than in the ordinary Rays ; 
but excepting this they have all the characters of these, and their crowded teeth are placed in fives, like little 
paving-stones. Some inhabit the Mediterranean ; some the Atlantic ; and one species from Brazil is said, but 
not proved, to be electric. Rhina differs from Rhinobatis in having a stout, broad, and rounded snout. 
Torpedo.— TSiil short, but tolerably fleshy ; disc of the body nearly circular, the anterior edge being formed by 
two productions of the muzzle, which extend outwards and join the pectorals. The space between the pectorals 
and the head and gills is filled by an electric apparatus, consisting of numerous cells formed like honeycombs, 
and subdivided by lateral diaphragms, in the intervals of which a mucous fluid is contained. This electric or 
galvanic apparatus is, like that in Gymnotus, amply supplied with nerves. The shocks given by the Torpedo, 
though smart, are not so benumbing as those of Gymnotus. They probably enable it to stun its prey. The body 
is smooth, and the teeth small and pointed. Two species, one with ocellated spots, and another with seven fleshy 
protuberances round the spiracles, with the back marbled, sprinkled, or spotted with brown, were long confounded 
with this one. There are also several species in the foreign seas. The Common Torpedo is occasionally found on 
the Channel coast of England. 
Raia, the Rays properly so called, or Skate, have the disc rhomboidal ; the tail slender ; with two small dor- 
sals on the upper part, near the point, and sometimes the vestige of a caudal ; and their teeth are small, and 
ranged in quincunx on the jaws. The European seas furnish many species, some of which are not yet well deter- 
mined. Their flesh is rather hard when recent, but wholesome. [The species found in the British seas are as 
follows : R. diagrinea, the Shagreen Ray ; R. batis, the Blue or common Skate ; R. oxyrhynchus, the Sharp- 
nosed Ray; R.marginata, the Margined Ray; R. maculata,\\\s. Homelin or Spotted Ray; R, microcellata, t\\Q 
Small-eyed Ray ; R. davata, the Thornback ; and R. radiata, the Starry-ray.— British Fishes.'] 
Trygon, the Sting Ray, has on the tail a strong spine notched on both sides ; teeth similar to the other Rays ; 
the disc obtuse forwards, and the tail often without any fin save a rudimental membrane. R. acanthus resembles 
Trygon, but has the tail long and slender, without fin or spine. 
Miliobatis, the Eagle Ray, has the snout projecting beyond the long pectorals, which extend outw'ards like 
wings; the jaw's have broad flat teeth like a pavement ; the tail is long and slender, having a spine on the upper 
part near the base, and not far behind the small dorsal. In some there are tw o or more spines. 
Cephaloptera, has the small tail, the spine, and the small dorsal of the last subgenus : but the pectorals are 
more extended in proportion to the length of the body ; the head is truncated in front, and a lobe of each pectoral 
advances on each side of it, making the fish seem as if it had horns. 
THE SECOND FAMILY OF THE CHONDROPTERYGII BRANCHIIS FIXIS. 
Cyclostomata (vfith the Mouth formed into a Sucker). 
j With respect to their skeleton these are the least perfect of fishes, and, indeed, of all vertehrated 
i animals. They have no pectorals or ventrals ; their body ends in a circular fleshy lip, with a cartilaginous 
ring supporting it, and formed of the soldered palatals and mandibularies. The substance of all the 
vertebrae is traversed by a single tendinous cord, filled internally with a mucilaginous fluid, without 
contractions and enlargements, which reduces the vertebrae to cartilaginous rays not easily distinguish- 
j able from each other. The annular portion is rather more solid than the rest, but not cartilaginous 
I through its whole circle. They have no ordinary ribs, but the gill-ribs, noticed as rudimental in the 
|i Sharks and Rays, are more developed and united with each other in this family into a kind of cage, but 
