SHARP-NOSED RAY. 425 



Colonel Montagu, in the Wernerian Memoirs already 

 quoted, says, by way of further distinction, the snout in this 

 species is slender, the lateral margins in a moderately-sized 

 fish running nearly parallel to each other for three or four 

 inches at the extremity. The skin is smooth, with the ex- 

 ception of the spines on the upper surface, peculiar to the 

 males, as shown in the figure ; the colour a plain brown with- 

 out spots or lines, and never so dark as the Skate last de- 

 scribed, with which it is sometimes confounded. The teeth 

 of the males, according to a specimen of the mouth very 

 kindly sent to me by Mr. Couch, are longer, more pointed, 

 and sharper than those of any other species I have had an 

 opportunity of examining. The tail is armed with three 

 rows of spines. 



Mr. Couch states that the smaller-sized specimens are 

 taken throughout the year ; but those which are larger keep 

 in deep water, and are only taken in summer and autumn. 



The French are great consumers of Skate, and this species 

 is their favourite fish : their boats come to Plymouth during 

 Lent to purchase Skate, which they preserve fresh and moist 

 during the run back to their own coast by keeping them 

 covered with wet sand. 



This species is the White Skate of the Orkneys, and of 

 Scotland generally ; and is said to have been taken on the 

 south-east coast of Ireland. 



It is doubtful whether this species be the oxyrhynchus of 

 the older authors : it is certainly not the oxyrhynchus of 

 Bloch, part iii. plate 80, which is the R. chardon of other 

 authors ; a species with a short nose, and further remarkable 

 for the intense black colour of its upper surface, and which 

 there is reason to believe has been taken once in Cornwall ; 

 but the specimen had been too much mutilated before Mr 

 Couch saw it to enable him to determine correctly. 



VOL. II. 2 F 



