270 SKATE. 



mouth and gills : these latter, taken together, pre- 

 sent a vast extent of surface : the young are con- 

 tained in oblong square capsules with lengthened 

 corners, and are discharged at distant intervals, the 

 young animal gradually liberating itself from its 

 confinement, and adhering for some time by the 

 umbilical vessels. The Rays in general feed on the 

 smaller kind of crabs, testacea, marine insects, and 

 fishes : they are constant inhabitants of the sea, 

 lying concealed during part of the winter among 

 the mud or sand, from which they occasionally 

 emerge and swim to unlimited distances. 



Of a rhomboid shape. 



SKATE. 



Raja Batis. il. cinerea nigro-varia, suhtus alba nigro-punctata, 



dorso glabrOj cauda unico aculeorum ordi/ie. 

 Cinereous Ray, with dusky variegations, beneath white with 



black points, with smooth back, and a single row of spines 



on the tail. 



Raja Batis. R. mria, dorso medio glabro, cauda unico aculeorum 



or dine, Lin. Syst. Nat. 

 Raja cauda tantum aculeata. Block, t. 79. 

 Skate. Penn. Brit, Zool. 



The Skate is one of the largest of the European 

 Rays, sometimes weighing from one to two hundred 

 / pounds, and even, according to some accounts, not 



less than three : its general colour on the upper 

 parts is a pale cinereous brown, varied with several 

 darker or blackish undulations : the under part is 



