JUNE, 1882. 195 



each wing are quite distinctive, more especially when 

 accompanied by the numberless minute hooked prickles 

 on the surface of the skin. Now, this species is said to 

 throw its eggs in December, and yet this specimen was 

 supplied with eggs in various stages, the larger being 

 wholly developed, with the exception of the enveloping 

 capsule of tough fibrous gelatine that apparently takes 

 so long to form. We have never succeeded in hatching 

 out skate eggs, probably from impatience of results being 

 so long delayed, but when removing several for experi- 

 ment the other day, we were surprised at the marked 

 difference between the eggs as removed from the fish 

 and the same egg as it appears when a short time out of 

 water.* The fish seems to throw out a stringy mucous 

 of the most tenacious character, with which the egg at- 

 taches itself to whatever it is deposited upon, and 

 so far from being thrown at random as some na- 

 turalists assert, we believe the spawning ground to be 

 carefully chosen, and the eggs that are thrown ashore are 

 the victims of the turbulence of the sea and not of the 

 stupidity of the fishes. If these carefully protected eggs 

 are never found in the stomachs of fishes, they are cer- 

 tainly punctured by some borer, notably the dog whelk, 

 so that they do not escape the dangers that await all 

 embryos. The cuckoo ray, whether from its small size 

 or intrinsic quality, proved to be the most delicate of the 

 class we have ever tasted, and certainly superior to the 

 thornback in its present condition. Only once have we 

 procured a small fish fry from the stomach of a skate 



* We succeeded at various times in hatching out the thornback, 

 six months being about the time required to absorb the umbilical 

 sac. 



