THE RAY. 
263 
577. They obtained it on the N. E. coast. It was soon afterwards ob- 
tained on the Dublin coast, by Mr. M‘Coy * and Dr. It. Ball. Captain 
Portlock also informed me that he had seen a specimen which was pro- 
cured in Dublin Bay. 
The Sting Ray, Common Trygon, or Fire-Flaire, 
Trygon pastinaca, Cuv., 
Was stated by Templeton to be “ occasionally taken on the coast.” 
Mr. Bernard Meenan says he has several times heard the Carrickfer- 
gus fishers speak of a fish like that figured by Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 588, and 
is pretty sure of having himself seen one. 
In Smith’s Cork, 1st ed. p. 305, the following note occurs : — 
Pastinaca marina prima, Rond., Will. The Great Skate or Fire-Flare, 
Will. Tab., c. i. f. 4, proves this to be a true Baia. 
The Cork Fauna includes Trygon pastinaca, on the authority of Smith’s 
Cork, and probably erroneously. 
Mr. Good informed Dr. R. Ball that a number of Sting Bays were 
taken at one haul of a traul-net, in the winter of 1846-7, on the Wa- 
terford coast. 
The Eagle Ray, Myliobatis aquila, Cuv. ? 
Mr. M‘Calla informed me that a large specimen of this fish was taken 
at Ardfry, in a bag-net set for salmon, but on my calling his attention to 
the specific characters, he stated his inability to determine the species. 
The Horned Ray, Ceplialoptera Giorna, Risso, 
Has a place in the general British Catalogue, from a single individual 
taken on the southern coast of Ireland, the following notice of which was 
contributed by me to the Zool. Society, in 1835. See the Proceedings 
for that year, 
“ Ceplialoptera, Dum. A fish of this singular genus, taken about 5 years ago 
on the southern coast of Ireland, and thence sent to the Royal Society of Dub- 
lin, is at present preserved in their Museum. In breadth it is about 45 inches. 
The specimen being imperfect, and the characters of some of the species being 
ill-defined, I hesitate applying to it a specific name. It somewhat resembles 
the Ceph. Giorna , as figured by Risso.” 
Mr. M‘Coy having commented on the foregoing remarks, I made the 
following communication to the Annals Nat. Hist. vol. xx. p. 173 : — 
“In a ‘ Note on the Irish species of Ceplialoptera ( Pterocephala ), by Fred- 
erick M‘Coy, M. G. S. and N. H. S. D. &c./ published in the Annals for March 
last (vol. xix. p. 176), the writer seems to consider that it is not the Ceph. 
Giorna , Risso, and recommends that the genus Pterocephala , into which it 
would come, should be adopted. He remarks that — ‘ On examining this very 
interesting specimen, I found that although obviously a Pterocephala , yet it 
presented most important differences from the C. Giorna , both in outline, pro- 
portions, shape of the fins, and form of the wing-like appendages to the head 
* * * ; [it] seems referrible to that described many years ago * * * and figured 
by Lacepede under the name of Raja Fabronianaj 
“ The writer then proceeds to point out in detail the various differences be- 
tween Cephaloptera Giorna and Raia Fabroniana. 
* It is the unnamed sp. of ray in his paper, in 6th vol. Ann. Nat. Hist., p. 
405. 
