FISHES 469 



Order CHONDROPTERYGI1. Fam. RAJIDjE. 



THORNBACK RAY. 



Raja clavata, L. 



Dr. Heysham wrote in 1796 that both Skate and Thornbacks 

 were plentiful on our coast, ' but only of late years have been 

 used in this county as food.' The fallacy of this impression is 

 self-evident. We have also documentary evidence which proves 

 that these fish were often served up at the tables of the county 

 gentry in the seventeenth century. The household accounts of 

 Lord William Howard supply many entries of Thornbacks 

 purchased from the local dealers. Thus, there stands in this 

 book (under date of January 1621) an entry : 'A thornpyke 

 and scate, xv d .' The price of Thornbacks varied in different 

 years from sixpence upwards, according to the supply and size. 

 Now-a-days many Thornbacks are taken in Morecambe Bay 

 and in the waters of the English Solway. Farren of Ravenglass 

 only sells the ' wings ' of the Thornbacks. In the winter time 

 many of these fishes abandon the sandy shallows of the estuaries 

 and retire into deep water. 



The fishermen of the English Solway are sometimes content to 

 send only the i wings ' of Skate to market, but their usual plan 

 is to make an incision on the lower surface of the fish and cut 

 out the head, leaving only a ring of cartilage as a sort of handle. 

 The liver of the Thornback varies in colour, being brown, grey, 

 or cream-coloured in the newly caught fish. I have seen an 

 astonishing quantity of shrimps taken out of a large Thornback. 



STARRY RAY. 



Raja radiata, Donov. 



The Starry Ray, or, as they call it, the ' Starr Ray ' is 

 occasionally captured by the Whitehaven fishermen. I received 

 an example of this fish on July 9, 1891, from Whitehaven. 

 Cradock, the fisherman who sent it to me, stated that he had 

 caught the fish the same morning. He added in his note that 

 'The Starr Ray is a noted cure for sprains in the back or chest; 

 it must be boiled to a jelly, and rubbed well into the affected 

 parts when cold/ 



