422 Fishes. 
THE SKATE, (Baia batis,) 
Is a species of the Kay, which was long disregarded in 
this country as a coarse, bad- tasted food, but which now 
appears upon our best tables. It is still, however, dis- 
regarded in Scotland and the north of England, where 
its flesh is principally used as a bait for other fish. On 
some parts of the continent, where these' fish are caught 
in great abundance, they are dried for sale. The best 
season for Skate is the spring of the year. The body is 
broad and flat, of a brown colour on the back, and white 
on the lower side : the head is not distinct from the 
body, so that this fish and all belonging to this genus 
are apparently acephalous, or without a head. The 
peculiar form of this fish is owing to the large size of 
the pectoral fins, which extend from the head to the 
base of the tail, and are very wide in the middle, and 
so, combined with the sharpness of the snout, give the 
fish the shape known as rhomboidal. Dr. Monro has 
remarked, that in the gills of a large Skate there are 
upwards of one hundred and forty-four thousand sub- 
divisions, or folds ; and that the whole extent of this 
membrane, whose surface is nearly equal to that of the 
whole human body, may be seen by a microscope to be 
covered with a network of vessels, that are not only 
extremely minute, but exquisitely beautiful. The tail 
of the Skate is long, and generally prickly. The mouth 
is, as it were, paved with teeth, which are flat, and nearly 
square in shape. In the full-grown male the centre 
teeth are pointed, at least in some species. The eggs 
