9 8 
Of Fijhes. 
ART 
I. 
00 Hlflor. 
50. 
Meat, or defcending as a Hawk when fhe Aoops. With 
the broad Fore-Fins, faith Oppian, the Female flickers her 
Young, as a Hen her Chickens with her Wings. But 
Arijiotle affirms, That fhe gives them protection as doth 
the Dogfifh, by receiving them into her mouth. He alfo 
futh, That of the Cartilaginous kind the Scate only beareth 
twice in a year,/c. Spring and Fall. 
Salvianus (a) faith, That the Skin of his Back is fmooth 5 
deceived by theAuthorities of Arijiotle,Epicarmm,Athenaus, 
and Pliny: witneffes enough to prove an Error. The Skin 
of thisFiih is ufedfor the poldhing of Wooden and Ivory 
Works. He is taken,faith Mr./foy,fometimcs near Cornwall. 
Another SCATE. ’Tis a young one, but in lhape altoge¬ 
ther like the former, faving that the Shoulder-Fins are 
here produced, more like a Wing, into a lharp Angle 
before. 
The HEAD of a SCATE, about the bignefs of that 
above deferibed. Sometimes they grow to the weight of 
a hundred and fixty pounds. 
The HEAD of the GREAT MAID. Caput Raja 
Oxyrrhyncha majoris. See the Defcription of this and the 
other Kinds 111 RonAeletim, and Bellonius. They all differ 
from other Fifties, in having a broad and fquat Body, with 
a long flender Tail appendent, but not fo Bender, as in the 
Cat-Fijh. The end of the Snout in this, is all befet with 
little lharp Hooks pointing backward. And with the fame 
Hooks, both the Jaws : but far bigger, and Banding in fe- 
veral Rows, eight, ten, or twelve in a Row. 
The Skin of the Raja, being artificially reduced to a 
monitrous lhape , is by fome ihewed, and is commonly 
taken, for a Bafihsk, 
The EGG of a THORNBACK. Ovum Raja Clavata. 
Or rather the Bag or Cafe of the Egg. Hereof fee Ron- 
deletius. Tis very fmooth, and (now) black and horny. 
Seven inches long, and four over. From each of the four 
Corners is firetched a fharpe ended Membrane two inches 
long. In the middle it fwelleth up on both Tides: fo 
that in lhape ’tis juB like a Pulpit-Cuihion. There are fome 
other lefier ones of the fame lhape and colour. 
In the upper part of die Womb, faith Rondeletius, are 
a great number of Eggs of feveral fizes, confiding only 
of 
