182 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 



fish "vvill also attend upon vessels dm-ing their 

 course, and that for months together, a circum- 

 stance known to the ancients, who regarded it 

 a pilot to the doubtful navigator, and held it 

 sacred. This fish much resembles a mackerel, 

 and is transversely banded. It belongs to the 

 mackerel family. 



We may now pass to the skates, or rays, of 

 which many species are natives of our coasts. 

 The singular depression of these fish, the mng- 

 like expansion of their side-fins, or pectorals, 

 their long and spiny tails, their peaked snout, 

 the position of the eyes and temporal orifices 

 on the top of the head, and of the mouth, 

 nostrils, and gills, orifices on the under surface, 

 render them at once distinct from all other 

 fishes. In these skates, or rays, the internal 

 surface of both the upper and lower jaws are 

 covered with a close array of teeth, like a tes- 

 selated pavement ; in some species these teeth 

 are flat or rounded, to act as crushers ; in others, 

 they are sharp and conical ; and what is sin- 

 gular, the males of some species have the teeth 

 sharp, the females rounded or flat, and the 

 young of both sexes flat teeth. Few fish are 

 more voracious than these tenants of the muddy 

 or sandy bed of the sea ; they feed on Crustacea 

 and shell-fish, crushing them with ease ; their 



