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Part III. — Eighteenth Annual Report 



especially during the herring fishing. Few of those taken by the 

 " Garland" are of large size ; they seldom reach beyond 2 feet in length; 

 whereas the picked dog-fish is stated by Day to attain a length of at least 

 4 feet off our shores ; but such large specimens are probably of exceptional 

 occurrence. 



Fam. Rhinhle. 



Rhina squatina (Linne). The Angel-fish or Monk-fish. 



"In the Firth of Clyde it is by no means uncommon, and is 

 frequently found there after gales ; one was harpooned while asleep, but 

 broke away."* This appears to be the only Clyde record for the angel- 

 fish hitherto published. In the Vertebrate Fauna of Argyle and the 

 Inner Hebrides it is stated that two specimens of the angel-fish in the 

 Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, are from the West Coast, but no locality 

 is given for them. 



Mr. Wright, the chief Fishery Officer for the Barrow-in-Furness district 

 of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries, states that he trawled in the Clyde for 

 about eighteen winters previous to the closing of the estuary to that mode 

 of fishing, and that during that time he occasionally captured angel-fish 

 on the Ballantrae Bank. He knows the fish very well, and has brought 

 specimens from Morecambe Bay to the Sea Fish Hatchery at Piel. The 

 name he uses for the angel-fish is the " abbot." 



Fam. Raiid^e. 



Rata batis, Linne. The Skate, the Grey Skate or Blue Skate. 



Moderately common and generally distributed, especially off-shore. 

 Those captured by the " Garland " are seldom of large size, being usually 

 mere pigmies when compared with the immense specimens sometimes 

 landed at the fish market at Aberdeen. The largest taken by the 

 " Garland " in the Clyde rarely exceed three feet in width. 



Rata intermedia, Parnell. The Flapper Skate. 



" A female with a disk 19 inches wide was obtained between Sanda 

 Island and Ailsa Craig in 24 fathoms, March 6th, 1888" (Gunther). The 

 flapper skate has been taken by the " Garland " in the deep water to the 

 east of Arran, and also in the vicinity of Ailsa Craig. (This is the Raia 



macrorhynchus of Day's British Fishes.) 



Raia oxyrhynchus, Linne. Long or Sharp-nosed Skate. 



Two specimens were captured by the "Garland" in the deep water to 

 the east of Arran ; both were comparatively small, one being only 21 

 inches and the other 29 inches across the pectoral fins. 



Mr. Duthie, Fishery Officer, Girvan, informs me that on February 1st 

 (1900) he saw a fine specimen of the long-nosed skate which had just 

 been sent to Girvan from Maidens Village — a village not far from Girvan. 

 The following measurements were taken by Mr. Duthie — Extreme length, 

 51 inches; extreme breadth, 34 inches; length from tip of snout to 

 centre of closed mouth, 13 inches; length of tail, 18 inches; while from 

 the tip of the tail to the vent was 21 inches. 



Raia fullonica, Linne. Shagreen Ray, Fuller's Ray. 



" A female example, 24 inches across the disk, from Loch Fyne, off 



Skate Island, was obtained in 100 fathoms. An adult male, 19 inches 



across the disk, was caught in Kilbrennan Sound in 20 fathoms" 

 *A. Norman, Zoologist, Vol. XV. (1857), p. 5366. 



