l68 NATURAL HISTORY 



[Fishes. 



several feet. The colour of the back is a brown, shaded with 

 clouds of a darker colour ; the lower side is white, and spot- 

 ted with black ; in some there are lines running, as it were, 

 under the skin, and appearing through it, ending in a black 

 spot ; the tail has two fins, and pretty numerous spines, though 

 not so many as in the thornback, or some others of the ge- 

 nus ; the jaws are quite filled with sharp-pointed teeth, the 

 roots of which are very thick, fastened in a sort of muscular 

 skin, which covers the whole lips. 



The young, or, as the fishermen call them, the maiden skates, 

 are very good eating, but when they grow large are coarse, 

 and very ordinary, yet none are thrown away, but the largest 

 are dried and eaten by the country people and poorer sort. 

 Large skates are sold for six, eight, or tenpence a-piece, or ac- 

 cording to their bulk. 



Species 2. — The Sharp-nosed Ray. 



Wit. Jcth. 71. Raii Si/n. Pise. 9,6. Raia oxyrinchus, Lin. Sys. 3{)5. Brit. 



Zool. III. 64. 



I HAVE seen a specimen of this fish in the Orkneys, taken 

 by our fishermen, agreeing with the description of it given by 

 natural historians. Those I saw were very large and much 

 spotted ; the nose longer and much sharper than that of the 

 common skate, and the belly whiter. 



Rays of all shapes and dimensions are here called Skates, 



