422 Fishes. 



THE SKATE, (Baia batis,) 



Is a species of the Ray, which was long disregarded in 

 this country as a coarse, bad-tasted food, but which now 

 appears upon our best tables. It is still, however, dis^ 

 regarded in Scotland and the north of England, where 

 its flesh is principally used as a bait for other fish. On 

 some parts of the continent, where these fish are caught 

 in great abundance, they are dried for sale. The best 

 season for Skate is the spring of the year. The body is 

 broad and flat, of a brown colour on the back, and white 

 on the lower side : the head is not distinct from the 

 body, so that this fish and all belonging to this genus 

 are apparently acephalous, or without a head. The 

 peculiar form of this fish is owing to the large size of 

 the pectoral fins, which extend from the head to the 

 base of the tail, and are very wide in the middle, and 

 so, combined with the sharpness of the snout, give the 

 fish the shape known as rhomboidal. Dr. Monro has 

 remarked, that in the gills of a large Skate there are 

 upwards of one hundred and forty-four thousand sub- 

 divisions, or folds; and that the whole extent of this 

 membrane, whose surface is nearly equal to that of the 

 whole human body, may be seen by a microscope to be 

 covered with a network of vessels, that are not only 

 extremely minute, but exquisitely beautiful. The tail 

 of the Skate is long, and generally prickly. The mouth 

 is, as it were, paved with teeth, which are flat, and nearly 

 square in shape. In the full-grown male the centre 

 teeth are pointed, at least in some species. The eggs 



