1122 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
dividuals both the upper and under surfaces of the 
body are roughened with spinulae, which are, however, 
somewhat unevenly distributed, large and small patches 
of perfectly smooth skin occurring here and there. The 
spinulae are also rather scattered, except on the under 
surface of the snout and around the inner orbital mar- 
gins, where they are card-like. They do not extend 
to the hind margin of the pectoral fins, which is per- 
sistently smooth. In form these spinulae are very 
pointed and fine, with a somewhat, expanded, stellate 
base, the diameter of which is less, however, than the 
entire length of the spine, and which is scarcely dis- 
tinguishable to the naked eye. Here and there they 
are worn and more granular, and their size is highly 
variable. In middle-aged specimens the orbital aculei 
are as a rule already worn down or missing. This is 
partly the case too with the median caudal row, of 
which there usually remain only one or two aculei and 
the marks of the rest. Each lateral margin of the tail, 
on the other hand, has developed by this age a row 
of aculei, which is also very variable, seldom symmet- 
rical, and displays the peculiarity that most of its 
aculei are oftenest directed forwards. Full-grown fe- 
males are rather densely covered with spinulae through- 
out the dorsal side, except on the outermost parts of 
the hind margin of the pectoral fins, and on the pos- 
terior fold and anterior lobe of the ventral fins. The 
ventral surface of the snout is almost as densely armed 
with spin uhe as the dorsal side. At the middle of the 
body and on the tail, as well as on the inner parts of the 
hind lobe of the ventral fins, the ventral side is also spini- 
gerous, but the spinulae are more scattered and grow 
sparser and sparser outwards, until they disappear on 
the outer parts of the pectoral and ventral fins, the an- 
terior lobe of the ventral fins being also naked. In adult 
males the spiny armature is as usual less developed. 
The coloration of the dorsal side is yellowish gray 
or brown, with irregularly distributed and highly vari- 
able spots of lighter and darker tint. Young and 
middle-aged specimens frequently have one or two pairs 
of ocelli, varying in size, on the posterior and inner parts 
of the pectoral fins. One of our figures (PI. XLVIII, 
fig. 2) represents a specimen from Gull mar Fjord with 
the dorsal side strewn everywhere with light spots (van. 
a Prodr. Face Medit ., vol. II, p. 523. 
b Expos, intern, di Pesca, Berlino 1880, Sez. Ital. Catal., p. 
c Mannuale Ittiol. Medit ., 1. c. 
guttata). The ventral side is of a dirty grayish white 
or darker, chocolate-coloured, shading towards the hind 
margins of the disk into a grayish violet. It is also 
dotted and streaked, as we have mentioned above, with 
black, the apertures and opening ducts of the system of 
the lateral line being thus indicated. This black punc- 
tuation extends 'sometimes even to the anterior part of the 
back. Sometimes, however, the ventral side is so white 
— Baron Cederstrom has presented to the Royal Museum 
a specimen of this description, a male 1 m. long and not 
yet mature, from Stromstad — and the black punctua- 
tion so sparse and faint that the difference from the 
Sharp-nosed Skate in this respect is inconsiderable. 
The common Skate is strictly a North Atlantic fish, 
its range extending from Norwegian Finmark and Ice- 
land south to the Bay of Biscay. According to Moreau 
and Carets' 1 it also occurs in the Mediterranean, being 
fairly common, especially off Cette and Riou; but neither 
GigliolP nor Doderlein 0 includes it among the list of 
Mediterranean fishes. The difficulty of fixing a specific 
limit between this species and the so-called Black-bellied 
Skate, which at least has a representative form in the 
Mediterranean, renders it impracticable to pass an opi- 
nion on this head without access to specimens. Our 
knowledge of the North American Rays is also too un- 
certain to decide the question whether the common 
Skate does not belong as well to the western parts of 
the North Atlantic. The waters round the British Isles 
and the fishing-banks off' the south and middle of Nor- 
way are undoubtedly the most frequented haunts of 
the common Skate. It also enters in numbers the deep 
fjords and the island-belts of the west coast of Scandi- 
navia. In Bohuslan it is commonly taken. In the 
Sound it penetrates at least to the neighbourhood of 
Landskrona, and through the Belts it makes its way, 
though rarely, at least to Travemiinde Bay (Mobius 
and Heincke). Its bathymetric range is also rather 
extensive. The older individuals are taken in Norway, 
according to Lilljeborg, at depths sometimes amounting 
to 200 fathoms. But, like the other Rays, it ascends 
to higher levels during summer; and Kroyer once saw 
4 specimens, 12 to 15 dm. long, taken at the end of 
September in a stake-net off Gilleleje (the north coast 
of Zealand), in water probably not more than 4 fa- 
114. 
