DECEMBER, 1881. 109 



Big crab, little crab, crab of a middle size, seven of them 

 all in a row, one nip and a gobble, and there was an end 

 of it. What is this now ? Coming in among the crabs 

 it is conspicuous, and very soon proves to be a Mya 

 Arenaria, the large bivalve shellfish that burrows in the 

 clay and mud at low water. You have been more suc- 

 cessful than we were to-day, old fellow, for have we not 

 been wandering, three-pronged graip in hand, seeking to 

 dig up a nice set of Mya valves, mostly without success ! 

 We were at a loss to understand how a skate fish could 

 capture a Mya, but on carefully examining the object, we 

 came to the conclusion that it had caught hold of the 

 end of the long siphon tube, and torn only so much of 

 the creature out of its shell. 



Now, skate fish abound in our loch, and we have 

 examined many of them, yet what is it that makes this 

 one so very interesting to-day ? The fact is that it con- 

 tains multitudes of eggs in various stages of progress, and 

 quite overturns any theory of breeding months we might 

 be tempted to entertain. In fact, we scarcely ever capture 

 a female skate fish in the loch that is not well supplied 

 with embryo eggs. In this instance none were ready for 

 emission; nor, indeed, were any provided with the horny 

 gelatinous shell ; but there was really no difference be- 

 tween the condition of this fish and one captured in the 

 summer. The eggs so closely resembled those of hens in 

 embryo that we determined to try whether they were 

 edible, they looked so tempting on the plate. So, half-a- 

 dozen or more were boiled in milk, with butter, flour, and 

 condiments in addition, but although the result was quite 

 palatable, and without the strong taste we anticipated, yet 

 the eggs were so doughy that our experiment merely 

 proved that skate eggs may be eaten with satisfaction 



