On some parts of the coast you may often find an empty egg which is very much like that of the skate, for it is made of just the same horny material, and is of just the same shape. But at the four corners, instead of having straight projections like the handles of a barrow, it has long, twisted tendrils, just like those of a vine.
This is the egg of the Dog-fish, which is really a kind of small shark. It is not big or strong enough to be dangerous to human beings; but it is a terrible enemy to such small fishes as pilchards and herrings. For a number of these creatures form themselves into a band and go hunting together, just like a pack of wild dogs. And they will follow the shoal about day after day, snapping up the poor helpless fishes in hundreds and thousands.
When a dog-fish lays its eggs, it seems to fasten them down by their tendrils to the weeds which are growing at the bottom of the sea; and these hold them so firmly that unless the weeds are torn up with them, they never break away. At each end of the egg is a small hole, allowing a current of water to pass over the little fish inside it. And at one end there is a slit, just like that in the egg of the skate, which can only be pushed open from the inside. So the little dog-fish can get out, while its enemies cannot get in.
1. THE EGG OF SKATE.2. THE EGG OF DOG-FISH.
Very often, after a violent storm, you may find a dead dog-fish lying upon the shore; and even if you have never seen one of these creatures before you can tell at once what it is, because its skin is so rough that it feels exactly like a piece of sand-paper. So this skin is often used for covering the handles of swords, in order to give a firm grip; and sometimes narrow strips of it are fastened to the sides of boxes of lucifer matches.