| The boy gave a curious half-sad smile, without turning his eyes from the thornback, and said nothing. |
| It's an unusual find on this coast, with thornback being the most copmmon rays, and they turn up only occasionally. |
| For a while we thought it might be a smallish skate, but it turned out to be a nice thornback of around twelve pounds. |
| The most common are dragonets, topknots, dabs, plaice and, if you're lucky, the occasional anglerfish and thornback ray. |
| Most of the skate sold in fish shops is in fact thornback ray, and in the Southeast the fish has the local name roker. |
| The best ray for eating, and the one best known in Europe, is Raja clavata, the thornback ray. |
