FOX SHARK. 



The extreme length of ;i Fox-Shark examined by Mr. 



J 



Couch, " was in a straight line ten feet ten inches, and along 

 the curve eleven feet eight inches ; three feet four inches 

 round where thickest ; solid at the chest ; conical from the 

 snout to the pectoral fins, and thick even to the tail, which 

 organ from the root was five feet and a half long, and conse- 

 quently more than half the length of the body ; eye promi- 

 nent, round, hard, four inches from the snout ; iris blue, 

 pupil green : the nostrils small, and not lobed ; mouth five 

 inches wide, shaped like a horse-shoe ; teeth flat, triangular, 

 in two or three rows, not numerous ; spiracles five ; pectoral 

 fins wide at the base, pointed, eighteen inches and a half 

 long. Measured along the curve, from the snout to the first 

 dorsal fin, was two feet five inches, the fin triangular ; from 

 the first dorsal to the second, fourteen inches and a half; this 

 and the anal fin small ; ventral fins also rather small, triansm- 



O 



lar ; above and below at the base of the tail a deep depres- 

 sion ; skin smooth ; lateral line central and straight ; breadth 

 of the tail, including both lobes, thirteen inches ; the upper 

 lobe narrow throughout its great length, and on the lower 

 margin, at four inches from the extremity, is a triangular 

 process. Colour of the body and fins dark blue, mottled 

 with white over the belly." 



Mr. Couch says it is not uncommon for a Thresher to 

 approach a herd of Dolphins (Delphini) that may be sport- 

 ing in unsuspicious security, and by one splash of its tail on 

 the water put them all to flight like so many hares before a 

 hound. 



" The specimen here described was taken at the entrance 

 of the harbour of Looe in Cornwall, in October 1826, hav- 

 ing become entangled in a net set for Salmon. The stomach 

 was filled with voiing Hcrrinsjs.'" 



