Ray (animal)

“ HOW THE RAYS DEFENDED THE FORD In South America there is a river called the Yabebirì; and it flows through the city of Misiones. In this river there are many rays, a kind of mud fish like the salt-water skate; and the river, indeed, gets its name from them: “Yabebirì” means the “river of ray fish.” The ray is a wide, flat fish with a long, slender tail. The tail is very bony; and when it strikes you it cuts, and leaves poison in the wound.
There are so many rays in the river that it is dangerous even to put your foot into the water. I once knew a man who had his heel pricked by a ray. ”

“ Other rays passed by so quickly I couldn't tell if they deserved that name "eagle ray" coined by the ancient Greeks, or those designations of "rat ray," "bat ray," and "toad ray" that modern fishermen have inflicted on them. Dogfish known as topes, twelve feet long and especially feared by divers, were racing with each other. Looking like big bluish shadows, thresher sharks went by, eight feet long and gifted with an extremely acute sense of smell. ”

“ The Raven is omnivorous, its food consisting of small animals of every kind, eggs, dead fish, carrion, shell-fish, insects, worms, nuts, berries, and other kinds of fruit. I have never seen one attack a large living animal, as the Turkey Buzzard and Carrion Crow are wont to do; but I have known it follow hunters when without dogs, to feed on the offals of the game, and carry off salted fish when placed in a spring to freshen. It often rises in the air with a shell-fish for the purpose of breaking it by letting it fall on a rock. ”

“ The first is the Argus Star-fish, Basket-urchin, or Sea-basket.{90} The innumerable rays and their subdivisions, amounting to some eighty thousand in number, act as the meshes of the net. All the rays are flexible and under control. When the creature wishes to catch any animal for prey, it throws its tentacles over it, just like the meshes of a net. It then draws the tips of the rays together, just as is done by the circumference of the casting-net, and so encloses its prey effectually. ”

“ The chicks remain in the nest until fully fledged, and display extraordinary cleverness in making their way among the reeds.
Little comes amiss to the bittern in the way of food, so long as it is of an animal nature; and its appetite is so great, that it is on the hunt for prey from sunrise till sunset. Water-rats, field-mice, birds of all kinds, fish, especially those inhabiting muddy water, snakes, lizards, leeches, worms, and insects and their larvæ are alike devoured by these voracious birds. ”

“ To mount the skin of a vile ray, and make it really perfect and life-like is to invite infinite shrinkage, rips, tears, warps, defeat, and humiliation at the hands of your envious rivals. If you must mount a ray, by all means get square with it at the start. Stuff his miserable old skin with tow or straw, the more the better. Ram him, cram him "full to the very jaws," like the famous rattlesnake skin that taxidermist Miles Standish stuffed "with powder and bullets." If you can burst him wide open from head to tail, by all means do so, and you may call me your slave for the rest of my life. ”

“ Will you follow Ray and see? Curiosity is what lures the fleetest deer to death, and a more dangerous path than that which Ray has taken one rarely follows. Will you try it, reader—just you and I? Come on, then. We'll see what our Kentucky boy "got in the draw," as he would put it.
Ray's footfall is soft as a kitten's as he creeps out upon the prairie; Dandy stepping gingerly after him, wondering but obedient. For over a hundred yards he goes, until both up- and down-stream he can almost see the faint fires of the Indians in the timber. ”

“ Rarely, and apparently only by mischance, does a ray take bait; but when hooked it affords good sport, for its impassive resistance is incomprehensibly great in comparison with its size, and comparable to the pull of a green turtle which in its wanderings has become foul-hooked. ”

“ Among the Rays, as among the higher animals, there are individual attachments formed between male and female: their eggs unlike the mere spawn of the osseous fishes, or of even the Batrachians, are, like those of the tortoise and the crocodile, comparatively few in number, and of considerable size: their young, too, like the young of birds and of the higher reptiles, pass through no such metamorphosis as those of the toad and frog, or of the amphibia generally. ”

“ Meanwhile the English naturalist, John Ray, was studying the classification of animals; he published, in 1705, his Methodus insectorum, in which the nature of the metamorphosis received due weight. Ray’s “Insects” comprised the Arachnids, Crustacea, Myriapoda and Annelida, in addition to the Hexapods. Ray was the first to formulate that definite conception of the species which was adopted by Linnaeus and emphasized by his binominal nomenclature. ”

“ It is a flat fish, belonging to the family of Rays, and usually measures somewhere between ten and twenty feet from tip to tip of its wings. On each side of its mouth is a flexible arm, with which the animal grasps and feeds. ”

“ If we are quiet we may see water-hens or wild ducks swimming among the lilies, a kingfisher sitting on a branch or flashing away like a gleam of light; a solemn heron stands, maybe, at the water's edge, or slowly rises flapping his great wings; water rats, neat and clean little creatures, very different from their coarse brown namesakes of the land, are abundant everywhere ”

“ Its pendent crest exhibits its glossy tints, its train falls gracefully over a well defined tail, and the tempered hues of its back and wings contrast with those of its lower parts. Its measured steps are so light that they leave no impression on the sand, and with its keen eye it views every object around with the most perfect accuracy. See, it has spied a small fly lurking on a blade of grass, it silently runs a few steps, and with the sharp point of its bill it has already secured the prey. ”

“ Something has already been said regarding their teeth and gills. The Cartilaginous fishes, in which most part of the skeleton remains gristle and does not become transformed into bone, include the Sharks, Rays, and Dog-fishes, all savage animals with strong teeth. The common spotted Dog-fish of our own shores is familiar to everybody: fishermen regard it with disgust, as it is not eatable. The Rays are flattened fishes, which live at the bottom of rather deep water, and attain enormous size even on our own coasts. ”

“ There, through the clear and rarified atmosphere, the Raven spreads his glossy wings and tail, and, as he onward sails, rises higher and higher each bold sweep that he makes, as if conscious that the nearer he approaches the sun, the more splendent will become the tints of his plumage. Intent on convincing his mate of the fervour and constancy of his love, he now gently glides beneath her, floats in the buoyant air, or sails by her side. ”

“ This Izaak Walton of birddom, whom you may see perched as erect as a fish hawk on a snag in the lake, creek or river, or on a dead limb projecting over the water, on the lookout for minnows, chub, red fins, samlets or any other small fry that swims past, is as expert as any fisherman you are ever likely to know. Sharp eyes are necessary to see a little fish where sunbeams dance on the ripples and the refracted light plays queer tricks with one's vision. ”

“ It is quite evident that the five bright red eyes at the tip of each ray are of some use in helping them on their journeys; but just how much they can see is not quite known. When a large object appears before them they prepare to surmount it, often going up very steep sides and down again as easily as though on a level stretch, often standing on the tip of one ray and sometimes on the five, thus resembling a five-legged stool. ”

“ In the white phase, the plumage is entirely, or nearly, white, including the plumes. As usual, these egrets associate in large flocks, of their own kind or other small herons. Their food consists of small fish, frogs, lizards, insects and mice. They will stand motionless in shallow water, for a long time waiting for their prey, and woe to the creature that comes within striking distance of their spear-like bill. Their flight is strong and graceful as they make their way from their breeding places to their feeding grounds on the mud flats, left bare by the receding tide. ”

“ Is it not probable that the tameness of the tame young robin so frequently met with is, like that of the robin who keeps company with the gardener or woodman, an acquired habit; that the young bird has made the discovery that when a person is moving about among the plants, picking fruit perhaps, lurking insects are disturbed at the roots and small spiders and caterpillars shaken from the leaves? We are to the robin what the cow is to the wagtail and the sheep to the starling—a food finder. ”

“ The shell of each is covered with a luxuriant growth of algae, hydroids and tentacled tube-worms, which mask the creature from its enemies. All about are large fish which swim close and peer through the glass window of the helmet. An enormous sting-ray indifferently floats by. One has a fellow feeling with these unfrighted denizens of the deep in the fascination of observing their behavior under natural conditions. ”

“ Seeing how important an organ of locomotion the tail is in most aquatic animals, its general presence and use for many purposes in so many land animals, which in their lungs or modified swimbladders betray their aquatic origin, may perhaps be thus accounted for. A well-developed tail having been formed in an aquatic animal, it might subsequently come to be worked in for all sorts of purposes, as a fly-flapper, an organ of prehension, or as an aid in turning, as with the dog, though the aid must be slight, for the hare, with hardly any tail, can double quickly enough. ”

“ They had an especial preference for dogs,—that is, as food,—and if they should hear a dog barking in the forest, they would go a long way over land to get hold of him. They lie in wait for fish, sometimes hiding themselves in the weeds and grass till the latter come near. They seized them, if convenient, between their jaws, or killed them with a stroke of the tail, making a great commotion in the water. The fish got confused with fright, and didn’t know which way to swim out of the reptile’s reach. ”

“ This curious fish is capable of giving a violent shock, like that produced by the electrical machine, to the person who handles it. The body is nearly circular, and thicker than any other of the Ray kind, and is sometimes so large as to weigh between seventy and eighty pounds. The skin is smooth, of a dusky brown colour, and white underneath. The ventral fins form on each side, at the end of the body, nearly a quarter of a circle. The tail is short, and the two dorsal fins are near its origin. ”

“ But this little plague of the pond is not quite safe himself. There are some other creatures down under the water that eat him. All nature is a kind of game of “tit for tat,” you see.
The larva of the dragon-fly breathes air. He has no lungs as you have, but gills as a fish has. How does he get air?
Through his body goes a long tube. The tube ends in a horny point at the tail. This point is made of five very fine spikes. These spikes and this tube are able to take from the water some of the air that is in it. Thus he gets air much as a fish does. ”

“ As dusk approaches, these birds sally out from their roosting or nesting places, and with slow, measured flaps, wing their way to their feeding grounds, which are usually fresh water bogs, teeming with animal and insect life. ”

“ About a hundred and thirty species are known to belong to this Family, all of which are marine. They are found in all seas, and the British coasts possess no fewer than sixteen. The following groups constitute the Sub-families of the Rays.
1. Rhinobatina. The Shark-rays. This form may be considered as almost equally partaking of the characters of the two Families whose names it conjointly bears. The body is much longer than broad, the tail is thick, and tapers gradually from the trunk; the snout is short and elongated. They mostly inhabit the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. ”

“ In the heat long snakes glide away from your approach, having seen you before you saw them. And rat, rat, rat, the red-polled woodpeckers in their tree-top cities call upon one another and seek their insect luncheons and then flit home and knock again. ”

“ The field-mice, land and water rats, squirrels, weasels, and badgers, have their houses above and below ground, while insects are to be found everywhere, testifying to the abundance of life. Not content, moreover, with filling the water and covering the land, this same silent power peoples the atmosphere, where tiny bats, butterflies, bees, and winged insects of all forms and shapes and colors, fight their way through the ocean of air, while birds, large and small, sail among its invisible waves. ”

“ In open places, prairies, meadows, and old fields with grass and flowers, it will be easy to find grasshoppers, butterflies, and some beetles. Ponds and streams are usually rich in animal forms, such as bugs and beetles, which swim on or under the surface, and larvæ of dragon flies crawling on the bottom. Dragon flies and other insects that lay eggs on the water are found flying in the air above. (In the spring, newly hatched crayfish, tadpoles, and the eggs of frogs and toads should also be collected, if found.) ”