RAIIDJE. 335 



ones in the females and the pointed ones in the males, in several forms. Liitken 

 (Vidd. Medd. 1873, 1-4) described the differences dependant on sex as seen 

 in Raia Batis, and B. radiata, as well as in B. clavata, in which last they are 

 less conspicuous. 



The female is found to be generally about one-third larger than the male. 

 The eggs of these fishes are in horny envelopes, and of a somewhat quadrilateral 

 shaj^e, with a prolongation at each corner, from the termination of which tendrils 

 do not spring as in the dog-fishes. In some sea-side places these egg-cases have 

 received the expressive name of skate-barrows. The young are mostly produced 

 at the end of the spring or during the summer. 



As food these fishes are held in different degrees of estimation in different 

 places. It appears probable that the Saxons rejected skates and rays as food, 

 the term slcitan meaning "to reject," but others consider such may be from 

 Sceadda, or "gliding motion." The term "ray" may be derived from reoh or 

 "rough." Yarrell observes that in London they are considered delicate during 

 the autumn and winter, but that in the spring when they are maturing their eggs 

 they are soft and woolly. Colonel Montagu, in 1809, observed upon the immense 

 quantity of these fishes taken in Devonshire, and chiefly employed for baiting 

 crab-pots. He computed that four boats in a season used not less than forty tons of 

 ray, at the small hamlet of Torcross alone, besides such as were consigned to the 

 deep immediately on being taken, as useless. He found that in seasons of scarcity 

 some of the small ones were eaten by the fishermen's families, but never offered 

 for sale. Now they are consigned to the London markets. These fish from the 

 nature of their skins, which continue to exude mucous for some days after death, 

 will not salt well, and in the north of Scotland are merely dried by being hung 

 up in the air. This sour-skate is universal in the Highlands and in the Isles, 

 forming a favourite article of diet. It is pungent and smells strongly of ammonia. 

 Couch (1862), speaking of the fisheries in the west of England, remarked that 

 the grey gurnard, scad, comber, power, the wrasses, dog-fishes, rays, and skates, 

 are collectively known to the fishermen as rabble-Jlsh, as being rejected for the 

 market. Things are altered now, much of this rabble-fish going to Billingsgate 

 and other large inland markets. On the west coast of Ireland, the peasantry are 

 said to have an insuperable objection to eat skate under any conditions. 



The fishermen at Lossiemouth, according to Gordon (Zool. p. 3488), enumerate 

 three kinds of skates : — the common or blue skates, B. batis, which they consider 

 the best and largest, is most abundant in March, and in condition at that season, after 

 which, having deposited their ova, they deteriorate. The thornback, B. clavata, 

 continues good until May, but is never so esteemed as the blue-skate. The white 

 skate, B. alba, is the rarest of the three. Some of them also desciube a ray which 

 they call Homics (horned or full of spines ?), about four or five inches broad, 

 round in shape, with two black spots on the back, and both back and belly full of 

 spikes (spines ?) ; when taken into the boat they contract themselves into a lump. 



Couch (Mss.) observes that fishermen inform him that rays and skates, when 

 held and drawn up by a line, are in the habit of turning their bodies so as to hide 

 and shelter their coloured surface, consequently it is difficult to get them into a 

 position so as to have this part exposed. As a blow on the head disables them, they 

 are probably trying to protect their most vulnerable spot by the same instinct 

 which induces them to move and waive their armed tails above these parts, over 

 which likcAvise they waive their armed pectorals. When hooked, it becomes very 

 difficult, often impossible, to raise the fish should it be able to fix itself to a stone 

 or to the bottom, but once raise its head and it comes up like a kite. Defence is 

 conducted by the point of the snout, and the base of the tail being bent upwards 

 towards each other, causing the upper surface of the body to be concave. The 

 tail is then lashed about in all directions, the spine of which may inflict very 

 severe wounds. 



A correspondent of the Field (12th April, 1884) observes that off the Lincoln- 

 shire Fens, Bkates aro caught in muddy creeks as follows : — A stout stake is tightly 

 bound round with straw to prevent a struggling fish dragging it out of the mud, 

 into which it is driven at low water. To this stake a line, baited with a small 



