93 



LONG-NOSED SKATE 



liaie museau fointu, Eaia acus, Risso. 



Raia mMcroyiata, Cornish Fauna, p. 25, but iikl Lh- 



references. 

 " " Couch's MS. in the Library of the 



LiiiniBan Society. 

 " " Yarrell; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 550. 



" acus, Gray; Catalogue of Br. Museum, p. 140. 



It is a question whether this is not 

 the Raia oxyrliynchus major of 

 Willoughby. p. 71. 



This species was not known to the older writers on natural 

 history, but in Risso's "Icthyologie de Nice," and in Dr. J. E. 

 Gray's "Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum," I 

 find a reference to Lacepede, who called it by the names 

 quoted from Risso. Still I do not find any mention of it in 

 my copy of Lacepede's "History of Fishes," dated in the 

 sixth year of the republic. 



This species is less frequently taken than the Common 

 Skate, and not usually in the winter. The earliest I have 

 met with have been caught in April; and as also examples 

 of small size do not fall into the hands of fishermen, we mav 

 suppose that their usual haunts are, with their parents, in 

 deep water. Fishermen report that when this fish has swallowed 

 the hook, it becomes more violent in its efforts to free itself 

 than the other species of this family. No further use is made 

 of it than to extract oil from its liver. 



The length of an example of the ordinal y size Vs^as four 

 feet seven inches, of which the tail measured sixteen inches; 

 the greatest breadth three feet and about an inch; and from 

 the snout to the mouth fourteen inches, the prominency of 

 the snout extending thus to a much greater length than is 

 found in any other of the British species of this family. 



