FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 
57 
Color of upper parts brown, light brown, or grayish-brown, everywhere covered with irregular 
dark spots, variable in intensity; a white ocellated spot on pectoral somewhat in advance of its inner 
posterior angle. (This spot, according to Garman (1913, p. 339), may be present or absent.) 
White underneath. 
This species is readily distinguished from the “clear-nose skate,” Raja eglanteria, its nearest 
relative of the genus in Chesapeake Bay, by the shorter and less strongly pointed snout, the more 
numerous and larger prickles, and especially by the absence in the present species of an enlarged 
series of spines on the median line of the back and tail. The color, too, presents noticeable differ- 
ences, the pair of white ocellated spots on the pectorals of R. diayhanes, when present, being very 
evident. 
This skate feeds chiefly on rock crabs and squid. (Bigelow and Welsh, 1925, p. 61.) They 
take, also, small crustaceans, razor clams, and such fish as they can capture. 
The breeding habits of this skate are unknown, except that, like all members of this family, 
the eggs are laid in leathery pouches. 
A single specimen was preserved, but many were examined in the field, upon which notes and 
measurements were based, and these have been used in the foregoing description. The specimens 
examined ranged in length from 29 to 36 inches and the width of the disk varied from 19 to 25 
inches. This skate was seen only in the southern parts of the bay, where it enters pound nets. 
Twelve to twenty-two individuals were taken each day in two pound nets located in Lynnhaven 
Roads, Va., from April 4 to 8, 1922, when the daily catches were observed; and one specimen was 
taken by the Fish Hawk near Cape Henry on January 16, 1914. This skate was not seen else- 
where in the bay, nor was it seen in the southern part of the bay on other dates than those pre- 
