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Show 290 PISCES. SQATLNA, Dumer.(l) Spiracles, but no anal, as in the third division of the Squali, but dif. fering from all of them in the mouth, which is cleft in the end of the snout and not beneath, and in the eyes, which are placed on its dorsal surface and not on the sides. The head is round, the body broad and horizontally flattened, the pectorals large and extending forwards, but separated from the body by a fissure where the branchial orifices are pierced; the two dorsals are behind the vcntrals, and the caudal is attached both above and beneath. The Squat. angelus; Squalus squatina, L.; Bl., 116(2) (The AngelFish), attains a considerable size in the European seas. Its skin is rough, and the edges of the pectorals are furnished with small spines. PnisTis, Lath.(3) The Saw-fish forms a fourth genus. To the elongated form of the Squali it unites a body flattened before and branchice opening below, as in the Rays; but its peculiar character consists in a very long depressed snout resembling the blade of a sword, armed on each side with stout, bony, trenchant and pointed spines, planted like teeth. This beak, from which these fishes derive their name, is a most J>Owerful weapon, and with it they attack the largest Whales. The true teeth of their jaws resemble small paving stones, like those of a Mustelus. The common species, Pristis,antiquorum, Lath.; Squat. pristia, L., attains a length of twelve or fifteen feet. HAIA, Lin.(4) The Rays form a less numerous genus than the Squali. They are recognized by the horizontally flattened body which resembles a head. N.B. The tail of Bloch's figure is twisteu, wheuce the error of Schn., p. 131-0aud.re inferiorc lobo longiore. (1) 'pl~n, in Greek, Squatina and Squatus in Latin: the ancient names of this fish still used in Greece ancl Italy. (2) Aud Squat. aculeata, Dumer., of the Mediterranean which has a row of strong spines along the back;-Squat. Dumerilii, Lesueur, 'Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad., I, x, with a granulated skin, &c. (3) np~~l,, saw, the Greek name of this fish. Species: Pristis antiquorum;Pr. pectmatus;-Pr. cuspidatua;-Pr. microdon;-Prist. cirrltatus. See Lath., Trans. of the Lin. Soc. vol. H, p. 282, pl. 26 and 27 ·-Pristis scmi-sagittatUI, Shaw., Russel, I, 13. ' (4) Raia, in Latin, BO(!rl~ and Ba.'J'or in Greek, a1·e the ancient names of these fishes. ., CHONDRO'PTERYGiT RRANCHTTS FIXT~. 291 disk, from its union with the extremely broad and fleshy pectol'uls which are joined to each other before or to the snout, and which extend behind the two sides of the abdomen as far as the base of the ventrals. The scapulre of these pectorals are o.rticulated with the spine behind the branchice. The eyes and spiracles are seated on the dorsal surface, the mouth, nostrils, and orifices of the brnnchire on the opposite one. The dorsal fins are almost always on the tail. The ova arc brown, coriaceous, and square, the angles extended into points. We subdivide the genus as follows: RmNODATUS, Schn.( 1) The Rhinobati connect the Rays with the Squali by thcil· thick fleshy tail, furnished with two very distinct dorsals and a caudal; the rhomboid formed by their snout and thcit· pectot·als is acute in front and narrower in proportion than in ot·dinary Rays. Independently of this they have all the characters of the latter genus; their teeth are crowded and planted in a quincunx order like small flat paving-stones. Some of them still have the first dorsal on the ventrals.(2) In others it is much further back. Such are the Mediterranean species, R. rhinobatua, L.; Will., D, 5, f. 1; and that of Drazil, R. electricus, Schn., Marc gr. 152, which has been said to participate in the pt·opcrties of the Torpedo; this however has not been proved. There is anothe1· species, Rh. grctnulatus, the skin of which is granulated.(3) 'fhc RmNA, Schn. Only differs from Rhinobatus in a short, broad, and rounded snout.( 4) (1) Plvo(Jd.'l'o,, which Gnza translates by Squatino-raia, is the Greek name of these fishes, which were considered by the ancients as produced from the union of the Ray with the Squatina. (2) Rhin. lmvia, Schn. 77, Russel, 10, and Rlt. Djiddensia, Forsk., 18, which probably form but one species. It is to it must be referred the fig. of the Rltinobate, Lacep., V, vi, 3, and that ofDuhameJ, part II, Sect. IX, pl. xv. (3} N.B. The R. tlwuin, Laccp., I, 1, 3, is a variety of the common Rhinobatus. The Raia ltalavi, Forsk., also appears to be the same. Add the Suttivara, Russ,, XI. (4) Rhina ancylostomua, m., Schn., 72, to which the editor improperly adds the Raie cltinoiae, Lacep., I, ii, 2, which, as well as can be determined from a Chinese figure, rather approaches the Torpedo. \ |
