
o EL Jii 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. III. — FEBRUARY, 1870. — No. 12. 
coc GG (949 «03-5 
SKATES' EGGS AND YOUNG. 
BY F. W. PUTNAM. 

Ir is an interesting fact that while the class of bony, or 
true Fishes, both fresh water and marine, are, with very few 
exceptions, oviparous, and lay immense numbers of eggs, 
the Selachians; or sharks and skates and their allies, are, 
with equally few exceptions, viviparous, and bring forth but 
few young at a time. One of the exceptions to the rule of 
viviparity among the Selachians is the genus Faja, to which 
our common species of skates and rays belong. Though 
the fact that skates lay eggs has been known for centuries, 
still to this day there is probably no class of objects picked 
up by the wanderer on the sea beach that excites curiosity 
so much as the egg cases of the several species of skates, 
after he has found out what they are. On being seen for the 
first time, and before close examination, I venture to state 
that the majority of persons regard them as some vegetable 
production, and pass them by as the supposed "bladder" of 
seaweed with which they are often so closely connected 
by their tendrils as to have the appearance of being part of 
the plant, which they also greatly resemble in color and 
general appearance. 
Some sharp eyed fisherman long ago, ascertaining that the 
Sommen, in the Clerks Omios of ths Dintelot Court of the Diet ot aaas eee OF 
AMER, NATURALIST, VOL. III. 78 (617) 

