318 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OP 



these fishes, or from that of a shark, but it is now arti- 

 ficially manufactured from the skin of an ass or horse 

 scraped thin, and into which seeds are beaten. It is a 

 long process, carried on at Astrachan. 



I. The Skate (Raia batis). 



Names. Blue, or grey skate, Scotland. Flair, tinker 

 dinnan, or blunt-nosed dinnan, Aberdeen. Flanie and 

 skider, Northumberland. 



Snout pointed and produced ; interorbital space equals 

 in width about one-third of the length of the snout. Mouth 

 transverse, and in nearly a straight line. Teeth. Pointed ; 

 over fifty rows in the upper jaw. Fins. The outer angle 

 of the pectoral is produced, and more or less pointed. 

 Body rough in large females, but in the males nearly 

 smooth. Some spines in the vicinity of the orbits, espe- 

 cially in the young, and two or three spinate rows along 

 the tail. Colours, Greyish-brown along the upper sur- 

 face, with a reddish tinge along the edges of the fins, 

 under surface of a dull or dirty white. 



Habits. The skate is a resident at the bottom of the sea, 

 usually in soft and muddy ground at some distance from 

 land, while it is very difficult to bring to the surface even 

 after it has been hooked. It will entangle the line in any 

 projecting piece of rock, or fix itself to the bottom like a 

 sucker, and can only be removed by first elevating its head, 

 and thus permitting water to get beneath its body. Even 

 when hauling it into the boat care has to be taken to keep 

 its head well up, for if it can manage to depress it, down it 

 goes to the bottom, where it again fixes itself as before. It 

 is very tenacious of life. It is rather choice in its food, 

 having a special liking for whiting. Couch found in one a 

 fishing frog {Lophius) weighing 6 Ib. ; in another a large 



