Fishes of the If'^estern North Atlantic 165 



Remarks. The smaller specimens in our Study Material agree so closely (bodily 

 proportions, dermal armature of disc and tail, and color) with the description** of the 

 only specimen of R. bathyphila recorded previously that there seems to be no justifica- 

 tion for separating them from that species unless future study should show that sub- 

 sequent development follows a different course in the eastern Atlantic form from that 

 illustrated by successive stages in the growth of the western Atlantic form. Thus we 

 conclude that R. bathyphila is a well marked species rather than a young stage o( R. lintea 

 as has been suggested.*^ 



Si-ze. The young are hatched at a length less than i 1 7 mm (our smallest specimen). 

 The largest specimen seen (a female) is 463 mm long. But we have no clue as to the 

 size to which this Skate may grow, for the claspers on the largest male (3 1 6 mm) still 

 reach only about halfway rearward along the inner margins of the pelvics. 



Developmental Stages. The egg cases have not been seen. 



Habits. The great depths at which this Skate has been taken (835-1,188 fath. 

 in the western side of the Atlantic and somewhere between 673 and 893 fath. in the 

 eastern side) point to a strictly deep-sea habitat, as does the uniformly dark coloration. 

 Nothing else is known of its habits. 



Range. Both sides of the North Atlantic in deep water; Irish Atlantic Slope (type 

 locality) in the east, a single young specimen ; lower part of the continental slope in 

 the west, from the offing of Chesapeake Bay to the offing of southern Nova Scotia. 

 This is one of the few Skates that occur on both slopes of the North Atlantic basin. 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. Five specimens have been taken so far in the 

 western side of the Atlantic, all of them by the Albatross in the summers of 1884 

 and 1886 at the localities and depths given (p. 159, footnote 75). 



Synonyms and References: 



Rata bathyphila Holt and Byrne, Fish. Ireland Sci. Invest. (1906), 5, 1908: 51 (descr., meas., Irish Atlant. 



slope between 893 and 673 fath.); Garman, Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., j6, 1913: 329 (descr., 



after Holt and Byrne, 1908). 

 Rata lintea (in part) Clark, Rep. Fish. Bd. Scot. (1926), i, 1926: 45 (considered synonym of R. lintea Fries 



1838); Clark, Faune Ichthyol. Cons. int. Explor. Mer, 1930: pi. not numbered (considered synonym 



of R. lintea Fries 1838). 

 Raja lintea (in part) Jensen, Skr. zool. Mus. Kbh., 9, 1938: 46 (considered synonym of ^. lintea Fries 1838). 



Raja eglanteria Bosc 1802 

 Brier Skate, Clear-nosed Skate, Summer Skate 

 Figures 32, 33, 34, 35 



Study Material. Thirty-one specimens, male and female, 135-785 mm long, 

 from: Woods Hole and 80-90 miles southward off Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts; 

 Middle Atlantic Coast; Chesapeake Bay; off Cape Hatteras (Lat. 35°26' N, Long. 



84. Holt and Byrne, Fish. Ireland Sci. Invest. (1906), 5, 1908: 51. 



85. Clark, Rep. Fish. Bd. Scot. (1926), i, 1926: 45. 



