62 



BULLETIN or THE BUREAU OF EISHEEIES 



This skate is taken on hook and line, in weirs, and in otter trawls. The breed- 

 ing habits of this species, as they apply to the Gulf of Maine, have not been traced. 

 Its egg cases are little larger than those of the little skates — 2J^ by 1% inches. 



22. Prickly skate {Raja scabrata Garman) 



Jordan and Evermann (Raja radiala Donovan), 1896-1900, p. 69. 

 Garman, 1913, p. 340. 



Description. — The prickly skate can be identified at a glance, or rather touch, 

 by the fact that the midline of the back behind the shoulders, and of the tail, is 

 armed with a row of very stout thorns. As in the little and spotted skates, the 



Fig. 24. — Prickly skate {Raja scabrata). After Garman 



anterior angle of the disk is blunter than a right angle, its margin bulging some- 

 what abreast of the eyes, and the tip of the snout is blunt. There is a pair of large, 

 hooked tubercles or bucklers on each shoulder, one in front of and one behind each 

 eye, as well as one behind each spiracle, besides the mid-dorsal row of 14 or more 

 just mentioned. Smaller thorns occur on the snout and are scattered generally 

 over the upper surface of the pectoral fins. The bases of the spines on the pectorals 

 are star-shaped, a very diagnostic character; those of the bucklers shieldlike. Males 

 ■ have two rows of hooked, erectile thorns near the outer corners of the pectorals, the 

 latter being more angular than in either the little or spotted skates, while the two 



