LONG-NOSED SKATE. 
1 125 
iris is bronze-coloured, the pupil shades into green and 
blue-black. The male Black-bellied Skate from Trond- 
hjern Fjord presented by Storm to the Royal Museum 
in March, 1891, and the original of our figure, showed 
on the dorsal side about the same coloration as the 
Long-nosed Skate represented in Plate XLIX; the black 
skin of the ventral side had been for the most part 
chafed away during the railway-journey to Stock- 
holm. 
The Black-bellied Skate is hitherto known only 
from the deepest parts of Trondhjem Fjord, where Storm 
first distinguished it in 1880, among the fish taken at 
a depth of 150 — 300 fathoms. It is stated to be fairly 
common there. As mentioned above, however, there is 
scarcely any reason to regard it as distinct in species 
from the Scotch Baja intermedia and the Mediterra- 
nean B. macrorhynchus. Its manner of life, says 
Storm, is about the same as that of the other deep- 
sea Skates. It voraciouslv devours both large fishes 
and crustaceans. The fishes he most frequently found 
in its stomach were Macrurus and Sebastes as well 
as Spinax niger and Pristiurus catulus, and the crus- 
taceans commonest among the contents were Lithodes 
maja, Pasiphae tarda , and Pandalus borealis. 
THE LONG-NOSED SKATE (sw. plogjernsrockan). 
RAJA OXYRHYNCHUS. 
Plate XLIX. 
Length of the snout from the anterior margin of the eyes about 20 — 24 % (24 1 f J %) of the length of the body 
or 31 — 35 % (36 %) of the greatest breadth of the disk. Distance between each nostril and the tip of the snout 
about 27 — 31 % of the said breadth and more than twice the internasal width. Least interorbital width less 
than 1 / 4 of the length of the snout. Other essential characters as in the common Skate. 
Syn. Leviraja mucusa, buvosa, Salv., Aquat. anim. hist., fol. 149, 
fig. 52. Raia oxyrliynchos major , Willughb., De Pise., 
p. 71, tab. C, 4 (ex Salv.). Raja varia, tnberculis deeern- 
aculeatis in medio dorsi, Art., Ichthyol., Gen. Pise., p. 72; 
Syn. Pise., p. 101. 
Raja Oxyrinchus , Lin., Syst. Nat., ed. X, tom. I, p. 231; 
Bonap. ( Lceviraja ), Iconogr. Fna Ital., tab. 151, fig'. 1; Gthr 
(Raja), Cat. Brit. Mus. Fish., vol. VIII, p. 469; Mor., 
Hist. Nat. Poiss. Fr., tom. I, p. 403; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., 
Irel., vol. II, p. 341, tab. CLXIX; Doderl., Afan. fttiol. 
Medit., fasc. Ill, p. 152. 
Raja chagrinea, Y-arr., Brit. Fish., ed. 1, vol. II, p. 414. 
Raja Vomer, Fr., Vet. Akad. Handl. 1838, p. 161; Mull., 
Hle, Plagiost ., p. 144 (+ R. Salviani, p. 143); Kr., Damn. 
Fisk., vol. Ill, p. 1011; Nilss. ( oxyrhinehus ?), Slcand. 
Fna, Fisk., p. 740; Malm, Ofvers. Vet. Akad. Fork. 1857, 
p. 193; Rich, in Yarr., Brit. Fish., ed. 3, vol. II, p. 548; 
Gthr, Cat., 1. c., p. 468; Coll., Forh. Vid. Selsk. Clirnia 
1874, Tillsegsli ., p. 217; 1879, No. 1, p. 106; Nyt Mag. 
Naturv. Clirnia, Bd 29 (1884), p. 120; Malm, Gbgs, Boh. 
Fna, p. 617; Storm, Norsk. Vid. Selsk. Skr. Trondhj. 1880, 
p. 81; 1883, p. 46; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fna, Fislc., vol. 
Ill, p. 598. 
Raja mucronata, Couch, Corn. Fna, p. 25; Fish. Brit. 1st., 
vol. I, p. 93, tab. XIX; Yarr., Brit. Fish., ed. 2, vol. II, 
p. 550. 
That this species also ranks among the largest 
Scandinavian forms of the genus and perhaps rivals the 
common Skate in size, appears from the fact that females 
measuring l i / 3 m. are found that have not yet reached 
maturity. As a rule, however, the Long-nosed Skate 
is smaller than the common Skate, and the males are 
sometimes mature, as our figure shows, at a length of 
121 cm. The largest females found by Malm among 
the take from the fishing-banks of J itderen were 14 
dm. long, and the largest males measured 137 cm. 
The form of the body is highly characteristic of 
the Long-nosed Skate. Owing to the strong prolongation 
of the snout and its pointed or ploughshare-like form, 
the disk acquires the appearance of a sector of a circle, 
the two radii (the anterior side-margins of the disk) 
being undulate and incurved, so that the most pro- 
minent lateral margin of the head falls a good way 
short of the straight line from the tip of the snout to 
that of either pectoral fin. The posterior side-margins 
of the disk together form a handsome circular curve, 
the centre of which lies in the middle of the mouth 
aperture. The distance from the tip of the snout to 
the hindmost part of the posterior margin of the pec- 
toral fins measured in two females about 83 — 84 % of 
the greatest breadth of the disk, in two males about 
88 — 90 % of the same. The distance from the tip of 
the snout to the posterior margin of the ventral fins 
is very nearly the same as the greatest breadth of the 
disk (about 92 — 104 % thereof). 
