304 The Hifiory of ANIMALS. 
and fomewhat depreffed ; the roftrum is oblong: the eyes are large; the noftrils are 
very confpicuous: the mouth is enormoufly wide, and the teeth are very numerous and 
terrible ; there are from four to fix rows of them, and they are broad and triangular, 
and many of them ferrated in the upper jaw ; thofe in the lower are more rounded 
and fmooth, or but a few of them are ferrated, in proportion to the number of the 
others: the fifh is very thick, in proportion to it's length ; and the back is very broad, 
and, as it were, flatted: the pedoral fins are large; the firft of the two dorfal fins 
flands near the middle of the back, the hinder one toward the origin of the tail : the 
tail itfelf is large and compreffed, and is divided into two parts, of which the upper is 
the Jaiger: the general colour of the fifh is whitifh; the fkin is very rough to the 
touch : the fifh is very bold and voracious, purfuing and fwallowing almoft any thin* 
fmaller than itfelf. & 
It is a native both of the Mediterranean and the Ocean, and in fome places is vaftiy 
frequent: the antients were very well acquainted with it. Ariftotle calls it A cZ[m* ; 
Oppian, A dpvn ; Athenaeus, . and fiElian, Kuwv B’^Xcctha, j Pliny, Gaza, Ron- 
delet, and Gefner call it, Lamia ; Willughby and Ray, Canis Carcharius five La¬ 
mia } Aldrovand and Charleton, Canis Carcharius ; Ray calls it alfo Tiburonus recen- 
tiorum ; and fome others, Tiburo and Tiburone ; fome call it Pifcis Jonte. The 
Swedes call it lias ; and we, the white Shark. 
R A I A. 
T H E apertures of the gills in the Raia are five on each fide, and they are fitua- 
ted on the bread at a little diftance below the mouth : the head is depreffed, 
and the whole body alfo is very depreffed or flat: the fides are terminated by broad 
fins, which fupply the place of the pedtoral fins in other fifhes: the eyes ftand in the 
upper part of the head, and the mouth, in moll of the fpecies, in the lower; and, 
behind each of the eyes, there is a fingle foramen. The tail, in this genus, is ufually 
long and {lender. 
Raia oblonga unico tantum aculeorum ordine in medio dorfo. 
The oblong Raia , with ojtly a fingle row of prickles in the middle of 
the back . 
This is a moderately large fpecies ; it grows to about the weight of twelve pounds, 
and is very broad and thin, in proportion to it’s length : the roftrum is oblong and 
acute, and the mouth fituated on the under part of it: the body is depreffed and fiat; 
the back is of a deep dufky brown : the belly is white, with a tinge of reddifh 3 the 
fkin of the whole fifh is very rough, and there is a fingle row of fpines running all 
down the back ; there are alfo two fimple fpines placed juft at the foramina or holes 
which are behind the eyes: the eyes themfelves are large, and their iris is yellow: the 
noftrils are large and oblong; there runs all round the fides of the fifh a kind of fim¬ 
bria, which feems a commiffure of the upper and lower parts. 
This fpecies is frequent in the Mediterranean ; it is met with in other feas, but more 
rarely : the antients were well acquainted with it. Ariftotle calls it 'Pw'Scst©* 5 Gaza, 
Aldrovand, Charleton, and Jonfton, Squatino-Raia; Bellonius, Salvian, and Gefner, 
Squatino-Raia five Rhinobatos; Paulus Jovius, Rhinobatus five Squali Raia; and R011- 
delet, Amply, Rhinobatos. 
Raia aculeata dentibus tuberculofis^ cartilagine tranfverfia 
in ventre . %\)t 
The prickly Raia 5 with tuberculofie teeth , and a tranfverfe 
cartilage in the belly . 
The head and the whole body are very flat and depreffed: the figure of the body, 
exclufively of the tail, is nearly fquare; the tail is long and flender, but it is alfo a lit¬ 
tle depreffed or flatted : the belly or lower part is altogether plane ; the back is, in ge¬ 
neral, plane, but it rifes a little in the middle into a convexity : the eyes ftand on the 
upper part of the body, at a very confiderable diftance from the roftrum; they are 
fomewhat 
