336 PLAGIOSTOMATA. 



flounder, is fastened. This is found to be very killing, the fish being obtained as 

 the ebb occurs. 



Mr. Saville Kent (Nature, July 17th, 1873) describes how the porpoises in the 

 Brighton Aquarium take skates and rays. Some large skate, Raia clavata and 

 R. maculata, so long as they maintained their usual habit of lying sluggishly on 

 the floor of the tank, escaped molestation ; but no sooner did they display any 

 unwonted activity, than the porpoises were on them, and making a convenient 

 handle of their attenuated tails, worried them incessantly. He once witnessed a 

 skate being thus worried, when it swam close to the surface and lifted its 

 unfortunate caudal appendage high out the water. 



The rays and skates found around our coasts may be divided with (a) Long- 

 snouted species, which include Rata batis, R. macrorhynchus, R. alba, R. oxyrhynchus, 

 and R. fullonica : (b) Short-snouted species exist in R. clavata, R. maculata, 

 R. radiata, and R. circularis. 



A. Long-snouted Species. 



1. Raia batis, Plate CLXVI. 



Rata clavata, Willughby, p. 74, t. Co ; Ray, Synopsis Pisoium, p. 25. Raia, 

 sp. no. 9, Artedi, Gen. p. 73, and Synon. p. 102. Skate, Pennant, Brit. Zool. 

 (Ed. 1776) iii, p. 82, pi. ix (Ed. 1812) iii, p. Ill ; Duhamel, Peches, iii, sect, ix, 

 p. 284, pi. xi, f. 14. 



Raia batis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 395 ; Bloch, t. lxxix; Bl. Schn.p. 369; Risso, 

 Ich. Nice, p. 3; Hollb. Got. Vet. N. Handl. 1822, p. 21; Turton, p. 110; 

 Faber, Fisch. Isl. p. 33 ; Flem. Brit. An. p. 171; Jenyns, Man. p. 510; Nilss. 

 Skand. Fauna, iv, p. 738 ; Fries, Vet. Ak. Handl. 1838, p. 158, pi. iii, f. 6 ; Mull, 

 and Henle, p. 146 ; Templeton, M. N. Hist. 1837 (2) i, p. 413 ; Parnell, Wern. 

 Mem. vii, p. 424, pi. xl ; Yarrell, Brit. Fish. (ed. 1) ii, p. 421, c. fig. (ed. 2) ii, 

 p. 561 (ed. 3) ii, p. 560 ; Blainville, Fauna France, p. 13 ; Johnston, Berwick. 

 N. F. C. 1838, i, p. 176; Kroyer, Damn. Fisk. iii, p. 978, c. fig. ; White, Cat. 

 p. 137 ; Malm. CEfv. Vet. Ak. F5rh. 1857, p. 193 ; Nilss. Skand. Faun, iv, p. 739 ; 

 Schlegel, Dieren Neder. p. 200, pi. xxi, f. 1 ; Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv, 

 p. 259 ; Dumeril, Ich. i, p. 563 ; Giinther, Catal. viii, p. 463 , Collett, Norges 

 Fiske, p. 216 ; Winther, Prod. Dan. Mar. p. 60 ; Moreau, Poiss. de la France, 

 i, p. 409, f. 73. 



Raia gaimardi, Val. in Gaim. Voy. Isl. et Grcenl. Poiss. pi. 2, 3 (young male). 



Raia leiobatos, Gronov. ed. Gray, p. 10. 



Dasybatis batis, Bonap. Catal. no. 18 (not Fauna d'ltal.). 



Lazviraga batis, Malm, Fauna, p. 615. 



Skate, Couch, Fish, Brit. Isles, i, p. 87, pi. xviii. 



Shape rhomboidal, the disk being about one-fourth wider than it is long : the 

 snout produced and pointed, more so in females than in males, and in adults than in 

 the young. The anterior edge of the disk undulated and deeply emarginate below 

 a line drawn from the end of the snout to the angle of the pectoral fins, which are 

 rounded ; the hind edge of the disk is rounded, and one-third shorter than the 

 front edge. Tail shorter than the body in adults, of about equal length in the 

 young. Eyes in adults equal to about one-seventh or one-eighth in the length 

 of the snout, but much larger in the young ; while in adults it equals one-third of 

 the interorbital space, but two-thirds in the young. The eye of the male is some- 

 what larger than that of the female. Spiracles just behind the orbit, than which 

 they are smaller. Mouth horizontal, much wider in adults than in the young, and 

 in females than in males. The distance between the outer margins of the nostrils 

 equals about the length of the snout. Teeth from 44 to 54 rows in either jaw; 

 pointed in both sexes, but distinct : in those in the male the crown is more developed 

 than in the female, its spinate portion is longer and more curved, and the distance 

 intervening between each vertical row is greater in males than in females. 

 Fins two dorsal fins well-developed on the tail and of about similar size. kin 



