Fishes of the Western Nortli Atlantic 



247 



Habits. The Eyed Skate has much the same diet as R. erinacea (p. 183), crabs 

 (Cancer) being the chief item where available; but they also take annelids, shrimps, 

 bivalves, and whatever small fish they can capture.'' A specimen opened by us recently 

 contained the body of an ascidian {Boltenia), the bristles from an annelid (apparently 

 Aphrodite)., vertebrae of small fishes, and two sizeable pebbles. Another, 3 i inches long, 

 taken off Massachusetts, was reported to have been full of beach fleas {Talitrus)\ one 

 caught oft" northern Nova Scotia had eaten butterfish, cunners, and squid.*' 



Figure 54. Raja ocellata, egg case, opened to show enclosed embryo, from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, about iX. 



This Skate is closely confined to sandy or gravelly bottoms. No doubt this prefe- 

 rence for hard bottom is the explanation for its reputed absence from Buzzards Bay 

 as contrasted with its regular occurrence in season at depths no greater in Vineyard 

 Sound nearby. 



Its depth range is wide, for while it is often speared from the wharves in the north- 

 ernmost part of its range** and is taken in pound nets farther south, it is taken down to 

 50—60 fathoms on the offshore fishing banks northward and eastward of Nantucket. But 

 most of those we have seen from many otter trawl hauls off the southern New England 

 Coast were taken shoaler than 40 fathoms.** The upper limit to its optimum thermal 



86. The list at Woods Hole includes smaller skates, eels, herring [Clupea), alewives [Pomolobus pseudoharengus), blue- 

 backs [Pomolobus aesti'valis), menhaden (Bre'voortia), smelt (Osmerus), launce [Ammodytes), chub mackerel [Pneuma- 

 tophorus), butterfish [Poronolus), cunners [Tautogolabrus), sculpins {Myoxocephalus), silver hake [Merluccius), tomcod 

 {Microgadus), and hake {Urophycis). 



87. Cornish, Contr. Canad. Biol. (1902-1905), 1907: 81. 



88. At Prince Edward Island (Cornish, Contr. Canad. Biol. [1906— 1910], 1912: 79). 



89. No specimens of R. ocellata were taken in 44 hauls made by the El'CENE H. in 47-67 fathoms between Long. 

 7i°54' and 7i°i5'W, January 27-February 3, 1950, and only one was taken deeper than 40 fathoms by the AL- 

 BATROSS III in 63 hauls down to 240 fathoms between Long. 67°io' and 72°2o' W, May 11— 18, 1950. 



