RAYS. 
311 
dance, the fishermen universally believe that the 
Dog-fish make a line or semicircle, to encom- 
pass a shoal of Haddocks and Cod, confining 
them within certain limits near the shore, and 
eating them as occasion requires. Haddocks and 
Cod are always found near the shore, without any 
Dog-fish among them ; and the Dog-fish are found 
farther off, without any Haddocks or Cod ; and 
yet the former are known to prey upon the 
latter ; and, in some years, they devour such 
immense numbers as to render this fishery more 
expensive than profitable.” "^ 
Family IV. Raiad^. 
{Rays.) 
In the flattened form of the Saw-fish {Pristis), 
and in the great enlargement of the pectorals in the 
Angel (Squatina), we saw distinct approaches made 
by the Family of the Sharks to that of the Rays. 
In these the pectorals are enormously dilated, 
their bases, which are continuous with the body, 
extending from the base of the tail to the head, 
and sometimes stretching out in front of the 
head in the form of lobes. Hence the ordinary 
shape of these fishes is more or less rhomboidal, 
or square, the snout forming one corner, and the 
tail projecting from the opposite, the other two 
corners being the angles of the pectoral fins. 
The body is broad, but thin and fiat; and a 
common skin invests both it and the fins : the 
ventrals are commonly large, and in the males 
are furnished with appendages resembling those 
* Bingley’s Anim, Biog, iii. 316. 
