colo.html

<section id="colophon" data-type="colophon" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <h1>Colophon</h1>

  <p>The animal on the cover of <em>Scaling Python with Ray</em> is the spotted eagle ray (<em>Aetobatus narinari</em>), so named for its spotted dorsal surface and graceful, flight-like manner of swimming. This cartilaginous fish is typically found alone, though occasionally in small groups, in tropical regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.</p>

  <p>Spotted eagle rays have large, flat bodies and long tails&mdash;longer than those of other rays&mdash;and can weigh up to an astonishing 500 pounds. They eat bivalves, crabs, mollusks, crustaceans, and fish, often using their duckbill-like snouts to dig through the seabed for these small sea creatures. This rooting behavior is unique among rays.</p>
  
  <p>Spotted eagle rays are superb swimmers and spend much of their time traveling in open water, though they're most commonly observed by humans in bays and reefs. The rays are known to use a thrusting motion to propel themselves out of the water, and there have been several reports of the fish landing in boats and even on people.</p>
  
  <p>Though their primary natural predators are sharks, the rays' behavior of swimming near the surface of the water column makes them particularly susceptible to gillnet fishing, which has led, in part, to steep population declines. As such, spotted eagle rays have been categorized by IUCN as <em>endangered</em>. Many of the animals on O'Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world.</p>
  
  <p>The cover illustration is by Karen Montgomery, based on an antique line engraving from <em>Natural History of Ceylon</em>. The cover fonts are Gilroy Semibold and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag's Ubuntu Mono.</p>

</section>