12 NURSE HOUND. 



crabs and lobsters; but, like most others of this tribe, tliey 

 are ready to seize any tempting prey that comes near them. 

 They are therefore often taken with a line; but the capture 

 is of little value to the fisherman, as their flesh is too rank 

 for even the coarsest stomachs. The liver affords some oil; 

 and the skin might be used for polishing wood, but that it is 

 too rough to be employed on the finer sorts: I believe a 

 species of this family from the Mediterranean is preferred f or 

 this purpose. 



This fish is not commonly found near the shore; and for 

 this cause chiefly it is most frequently met with through the 

 summer and autumn, when fishing boats are able to venture 

 into the deeper water of the channel, where they are to be 

 met with. But there is reason to believe also, that at this season 

 they change their ground; for even when the weather has 

 permitted fishing in their summer haunts, and that too with 

 what is known to be a favourite bait, they have not been 

 caught until the spring is advanced. 



The young are not hatched within the body as is the case 

 with the generality of Sharks ; but they are separately enclosed 

 in purses, which are of a firm texture like leather, of an oblong 

 form, about three inches long, with a raised border, and having 

 extended tendrils at the four corners; which become curled up 

 when in contact with the water, and so fasten the case to some 

 fixed substance, which preserves it from being tossed about by 

 the violence of storms, and in some degree serves it in place 

 of a nest. They are deposited singly, or no more than two 

 or three together, late in the year. But although I have some- 

 times found these purses attached to some stalk of flexible coral, 

 I have scarcely known an instance where the purse has been 

 obtained from the body of the fish; from which the conclusion 

 seems to arise, that at that time it does not take a bait. I have 

 met with a young one, taken in a net, of less than four inches 

 in length, but bearing all the marks of its full-grown parent. 



Although not so formidable with its teeth as many other 

 Sharks, this fish is well able to defend itself from an enemy. 

 When seized it throws its body round the arm that holds it, 

 and by a contractile and reversed action of its body grates 

 over the surface of its enemy with the rugged spines of its skin, 

 like a rasp. There are few animals that can bear so severe 



