the title of the Indian black princes, the remains of those who ruled there before the Moguls. Some of the rajas are said to preserve their independence, especially in the mountainous parts; but most of them pay an annual tribute to the Mogul. The Indians call them rai; the Persians, rajaan, in the plural; and our travellers rajah, or raja.

the Ray-Fish, in ichthyology; a genus belonging to the order of Chondropterygia. There are five spiracula below towards the peak; the body compressed; and the mouth is situated under the head. The most remarkable species are,

1. The batris, or skate: this species is the thinnest in proportion to its bulk of any of the genus, and also the largest, some weighing near 200 pounds. The nose, though not long, is sharp pointed; above the eyes is a set of short spines; the upper part is of a pale brown, sometimes streaked with black; the lower part is white, marked with great numbers of minute black spots. The jaws are covered with small granulated but sharp-pointed teeth. The tail is of moderate length; near the end are two fins; along the top of it is one row of spines, and on the edges are irregularly dispersed a few others, which makes us imagine with Mr Ray, that in this respect these fish vary, some having one, others more orders of spines on the tail. It is remarked, that in the males of this species the fins are full of spines. Skates generate in March and April; at which time they swim near the surface of the water, several of the males pursuing one female. They adhere so fast together in coition, that the fishermen frequently draw up both together, though only one has taken the bait. The females begin to cast their purfes, as the fishermen call them (the bags in which the young are included) in May, and continue doing it till September. In October they are exceedingly poor and thin; but in November they begin to improve, and grow gradually better till May, when they are in the highest perfection. The males go sooner out of season than the females.

2. The oxyrinchus, or sharp-nosed ray, in length near seven feet, and breadth five feet two inches; when just brought on shore, it makes a remarkable snorting noise. The nose is very long, narrow, and sharp-pointed, not unlike the end of a pontoon. The body is smooth, and very thin in proportion to the size; the upper part ash-coloured, spotted with numerous white spots, and a few black ones. The tail is thick; towards the end are two small fins; on each side is a row of small spines, with another row in the middle, which runs down the back. The lower part of the fish is quite white. The mouth is very large, and furnished with numbers of small sharp teeth bending inwards. This fish has been supposed to be the boi of the ancients; ents; which was certainly some enormous species of ray, though we cannot pretend to determine the particular kind. Oppian styles it, the broadest among fishes: he adds an account of its fondness of human flesh, and the method it takes of destroying men, by over-laying and keeping them down by its vast weight till they are drowned. Phile (De propriet. anim. p. 85.) gives much the same relation. We are inclined to give them credit, since a modern writer, of undoubted authority *, gives the very same account of a fish found in the South Seas, the terror of those employed in the pearl-fishery. It is a species of ray, called there mantia, or the quilt, from its surrounding and wrapping up the unhappy divers till they are suffocated; therefore the negroes never go down without a sharp knife to defend themselves against the assaults of this terrible enemy.

3. The aspera, or rough ray, is found in Loch Broom in Scotland. The length from the nose to the tip of the tail is two feet nine. The tail is almost of the same length with the body. The nose is very short. Before each eye is a large hooked spine; and behind each another, beset with lesser. The upper part of the body is of a cinereous brown mixed with white, and spotted with black; and entirely covered with small spines. On the tail are three rows of great spines: all the rest of the tail is irregularly beset with lesser. The fins and under side of the body are equally rough with the upper. The teeth are flat and rhomboidal.

4. The fullonica, or fuller, derives its Latin name from the instrument fullers make use of in smoothing cloth, the back being rough and spiny. The nose is short and sharp. At the corner of each eye are a few spines. The membrane of nictitation is fringed. Teeth small and sharp. On the upper part of the pectoral fins are three rows of spines pointing towards the back, crooked like those on a fuller's instrument. On the tail are three rows of strong spines: the middle row reaches up part of the back. The tail is slender, and rather longer than the body. The colour of the upper part of the body is cinereous, marked usually with numerous black spots: the lower part is white. This, as well as most other species of rays, vary a little in colour, according to age. This grows to a size equal to the skate. It is common at Scarborough, where it is called the cubite hans, or gullet.

5. The shagreen ray increases to the size of the skate; is fond of launces or sand-eels, which it takes generally as a bait. The form is narrower than that of the common kinds; the nose long and very sharp; pupil of the eye sapphire-like; on the nose are two short rows of spines; on the corner of the eyes another of a semicircular form; on the tail are two rows, continued a little up the back, small, slender, and very sharp: along the sides of the tail is a row of minute spines; intermixed with innumerable little spicules. The upper part of the body is of a cinereous brown, covered closely with shagreen-like tubercles, resembling the skin of the dog-fish: the under side of the body is white; from the nose to the beginning of the pectoral fins is a tuberculated space. The teeth slender, and sharp as needles.

6. The torpedo, cramp-fish, or electric ray, is frequently taken in Torbay: has been once caught off Pembroke, and sometimes near Waterford in Ireland. It is generally taken, like other flat fish, with the trawl; but there is an instance of its taking the bait. It commonly lies in water of about 40 fathoms depth; and in company with the congenerous rays. The torpedo brings forth its young at the autumnal equinox, as affirmed by Aristotle. A gentleman of La Rochelle, on dissecting certain females of this species, the 10th of September, found in the matrices several of the foetuses quite formed, and nine eggs in no state of forwardness; superfluation seems therefore to be a property of this fish. The food of the torpedo is fish; a furnulett and a plaice have been found in the stomach of two of them. The furnulet is a fish of that swiftness, that it was impossible for the torpedo to take it by pursuit. It is probable, therefore, that by their electric stroke they stupify their prey; yet the crab and sea-leech will venture to annoy them. They will live 24 hours out of the sea; and but very little longer if placed in fresh water. They inhabit sandy places; and will bury themselves superficially in it, by flinging the sand over, by a quick flapping of all the extremities. It is in this situation that the torpedo gives his most forcible shock, which throws down the astonished passenger who inadvertently treads upon him. In our seas it grows to a great size, and above 80 pounds weight. The tail is thick and round; the caudal fin broad and abrupt. The head and body, which are indistinct, are nearly round; attenuating to extreme thinness on the edges; below the body, the ventral fins form on each side a quarter of a circle. The two dorsal fins are placed on a trunk of the tail. The eyes are small, placed near each other: behind each is a round spiracle, with six small cutaneous rags on their inner circumference. Mouth small; teeth minute, spicular. Five openings to the gills, as in others of this genus. The skin everywhere smooth; cinereous brown above, white beneath. See further the article Electricity, n° 258—261.

7. The clavata, or thornback, is easily distinguished from the others by the rows of strong, sharp spines disposed along the back and tail. In a large one seen by Mr Pennant, were three rows on the back, and five on the tail, all inclining towards its end. On the nose, and on the inner side of the forehead, near the eyes, were a few spines, and others were scattered without any order on the upper part of the pectoral fins. The mouth was small, and filled with granulated teeth: The upper part of the body was of a pale ash colour, marked with short streaks of black, and the skin rough, with small tubercles like shagreen. The belly white, crossed with a strong femoral cartilage beneath the skin: in general, the lower part was smooth, having only a few spines on each side. The young fish have very few spines on them; and their backs are often spotted with white, and each spot is encircled with black. This species frequents our sandy shores; are very voracious, and feed on all sorts of flat fish; are particularly fond of herrings and sand-eels; and sometimes eat crustaceous animals, such as crabs. These sometimes weigh 14 or 15 pounds, but with us seldom exceed that weight. They begin to generate in June, and bring forth their young in July and August, which (as well as those of the skate) before they are old enough to breed, are called maids. The thornback begins to be in season in November, and continues so later than the skate, but the young of both are good at all times of the year.

8. The pastinaca, or sting ray, does not grow to the bulk of the others: The body is quite smooth, of shape almost round, and is of a much greater thickness and more RAI

more elevated form in the middle than any other rays, but grows thin towards the edges. The nose is very sharp pointed, but short; the mouth small, and filled with granulated teeth. The irides are of a gold colour; behind each eye the orifice is very large. The tail is very thick at the beginning; the spine is placed about a third the length of the former from the body; is about five inches long, flat on the top and bottom, very hard, sharp pointed, and the two sides thin, and closely and sharply bearded the whole way. The tail extends four inches beyond the end of this spine, and grows very slender at the extremity. These fish are observed to shed their spine, and renew them annually; sometimes the new spine appears before the old one drops off; and the Cornish call this species *cardinal trilob*, or three-tailed, when so circumstanced. The colour of the upper part of the body is a dirty yellow, the middle part of an obscure blue; the lower side white, the tail and spine dusky. The weapon with which nature has armed this fish hath supplied the ancients with many tremendous fables relating to it. Pliny, Ælian, and Oppian, have given it a venom that affects even the inanimate creation: trees that are struck by it instantly lose their verdure and perish, and rocks themselves are incapable of resisting the potent poison. The enchantress Circe armed her son with a spear headed with the spine of the trygon, as the most irresistible weapon she could furnish him with; and with which he afterwards committed parricide, unintentionally, on his father Ulysses. That spears and darts might, in very early times, have been headed with this bone instead of iron, we have no kind of doubt; that of another species of this fish being still used to point the arrows of some of the South American Indians, and is, from its hardness, sharpness, and beards, a most dreadful weapon. But in respect to its venomous qualities, there is not the least credit to be given to the opinion, though it was believed (as far as it affected the animal world) by Rondeletius, Aldrovand, and others, and even to this day by the fishermen in several parts of the kingdom. It is in fact the weapon of offence belonging to the fish, capable of giving a very bad wound, and which is attended with dangerous symptoms when it falls on a tendinous part or on a person in a bad habit of body. As to any fish having a spine charged with actual poison, it seems very dubious, though the report is sanctified by the name of Linnaeus. He instances the *paflinaca*, the *torpedo*, and the *tetrodon lineatus*. The first is incapable of conveying a greater injury than what results from the mere wound; the second, from its electric effluvia; and the third, by imparting a pungent pain like the sting of nettles, occasioned by the minute spines on its abdomen.