BLACK-BELLIED SKATE. 
1123 
thorns deep, this being the maximum depth of an or- 
dinary stake-net. 
The common Skate seeks its food, like other Rays, 
among all kinds of marine animals, its size rendering 
it a still more dangerous enemy of the larger among 
them, such as Flatfishes, Codfishes, and large crusta- 
ceans. Even its congeners do not escape. 
The breeding season of the common Skate occurs 
in spring. During summer, from May till September, 
it deposits its eggs, the shell of which, according to 
Kroyer, is of a handsome sea-green colour when fresh. 
While dredging in very deep water off the outermost 
islands in Bohuslan, Fries secured the empty egg-shell 
of a Ray. It measured 32 cm. in length and rather 
more than 1 3 1 / 2 cm. in breadth 0 , and in all probability 
belonged to the common Skate. 
The fairly plentiful occurrence of this species ren- 
ders it of no little economical importance to man. The 
largest Skate are less esteemed, however, than those of 
medium size. When boiled fresh, Skate finds no great 
favour with the fishing population, who prefer either 
to keep it a day or two before eating or to score it 
with deep long slits, after which it is either salted or 
dried. Under the last-mentioned form it is often sub- 
stituted for stockfish in their Christmas fare 6 . 
No special fishery can be said to be practised for 
the common Skate; but on his long-lines the fisherman 
usually leaves every fifth snood, the so-called Ray-snood, 
without float, so that it may sink to the bottom, where 
the bait, generally the head of a Herring, is more easily 
reached by the Skate. 
(Fries, Smitt.) 
THE BLACK-BELLIED SKATE (sw. SVARTBUKSROCKAN c ). 
RAJA NIDROS1ENSIS. 
Figs. 293, A and 324. 
Length of the snout from the anterior margin of the eyes (in adult specimens ) about 19 — 22 % of the length of 
the body or 28 % (27 — 30 %) of the greatest breadth of the disk. Distance between each nostril and the tip of 
the snout about V 4 of the said breadth and more than twice the internasal width. Least interorbital width less 
than V 4 (24f 2 — 21 %) of the length of the snout. Females' 3 with three roivs of aculei on the tail, males with 
only one (that of the upper median line). Otherwise: aculei , dorsal fins, and caudal fin as in the common Skate. 
Ventral side so dark (blackish) that the 
Syn. ? Raja Macrorynchus, Rafin., Caratt. ale. n. gen., p. 15; 
Bonap. ( Lceviraja ), Iconogr. Fna Ital., Pesci, tab. 151, fig. 
2; Gthr (Raja), Cat. Brit. Mus. Fish., vol. VIII, p. 468; 
Mor., Hist. Nat. Roiss. Fr., tom. I, p. 405; Day, Fish. 
Gt. Brit., Irel., vol. II, p. 338, tab. CLXVII. 
? Raia intermedia, Parn., Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. VII, 
p. 429, tab. XL; Rich, in Yarr., Brit. Fish., ed. 3, vol. 
II, p. 557. 
Raja nidrosiensis, Coll, apud Storm, N. Vid. Selsk. Skr. Trondhj. 
1880, p. 80; Coll., Forh. Vid. Selsk. Chrnia 1881, No. 7; 
Storm, 1. c. 1883, p. 47 ; Coll., N. Mag. Naturv. Chrnia, 
Bd 29, p. 121; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fna, Fisk., vol. Ill, 
p. 576. 
Of the Black-bellied Skate only large specimens, 
about 14 — 20 dm. long and 10 — 14 dm. broad, have 
hitherto been found. In form of body it is so similar 
to the common Skate that the longer snout can merely 
be adduced as a character which is generally distinctive 
“ In its present dried condition it measures, including the short 
b See p. 1107, note /. 
c Lilljeborg, 1. c. 
d According to Collett. 
black dots and streaks are indistinct. 
of the Black-bellied Skate, but which — to judge by 
the course of development known to be followed by 
the other Rays — will probably lose its significance 
when information has been obtained of the earlier staves 
in the growth of this fish. The skeletons of the two 
species are also alike, apart from the length of the 
rostral region. The only difference worthy of remark 
in skeletons of about equal size seems to be that in the 
pectoral fins of the Black-bellied Skate the mesoptery- 
gium is bifid; but the number of the radialia applied 
to the two parts is the same (13) as that possessed by 
the undivided mesopterygium of the common Skate. 
The outer (anterior) lobe of the ventral fins also appears 
in the Black-bellied Skate to be longer in proportion to 
the posterior lobe; but to judge by Collett’s measure- 
horns, 2 4 1 / 2 cm. in length and 8Y 2 cm. in breadth. 
