THE TORPEDO. 
310 
take it by piirfuit : and as this fi(h has been found in its 
ftomach, itjuftifies Pliny's account of the manner in which 
this animal fecures its prey. The torpedo is taken at 
for bay, off Pembroke , and at Waterford in Ireland ; it 
is caught with the other fiat fifh, with the trawl, and is 
commonly found in water forty fathom deep, in compa- 
ny with the congenerous rays *. 
Thofe animals are faid to bring forth their young a- 
bout the time of the autumnal cquinoxf; but from a dif- 
fecton of one made by a French gentleman, they feem ca- 
pable of fuperfoetation, and of confequence mull produce 
young at different times. Rondelctius t mentions two 
fpecies of the torpedo, and Willoughby deferibes an Ame- 
rican kind after Margrave, of a foot and nine inches in 
length, and fCven in breadth. It is without teeth, and 
has two fpiraeula below the neck §. 
Ihe Fire-fare, or Stitig ||j 
Were we to credit all the marvellous accounts which 
the ancient naturalifts have given, of the venom lodged 
in the armour of this fifli, we would unavoidably dread 
it, as an animal ftill more formidable than the torpedo If- 
The weapon in which nature is faid' to have lodged this 
poifoib 
* Britilh Zool. f Ariftot. Hift. animal. 
1 De pifeibus. § Vide Ichthyol. p. So. 
[| Paftinaca marina Lxvis, Will. La Paltenade dc mer, Beloi). 
^ Pliny, Ellian, and Opiam. 
