Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
SHOVEL-NOSED SKATE.
Known also as the Halavi Ray.
Two interesting peculiarities of the rays deserve notice in concluding this chapter. The first is that their egg-purses, instead of attaching themselves with filaments to weeds and rocks, like those of the sharks, are provided with a sticky secretion which answers the same purpose of anchoring them in security from currents that would carry them out into deep, cold water. The second is the sexual difference in the teeth, which are pointed in the male and flat in the female. Whether this difference in the teeth (which may be likened to that between the bills of the male and female Huia-bird of New Zealand) indicates a corresponding difference in food, or, on the other hand, some co-operation between the sexes in procuring it, is an interesting question that our present slight knowledge of the habits of these fishes does not enable us to answer.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
PAINTED SKATE.
So called on account of its conspicuous coloration.
Finally, attention must be drawn to the remarkable transformation which the breast-fins and tail have undergone. The former have developed into powerful swimming-organs, locomotion being effected by their undulatory movements, instead of by similar movements of the whole body, or by side-to-side motions of the tail, as in other fishes. Whilst the latter, no longer used in swimming, has either been reduced to a mere vestige, as in the Horned Ox-ray, or has become developed into a long and tapering "whiplash," provided with a poison-spine. In such cases the long tail is used to encircle prey, and at the same time to force the victim on to the deadly spine.