51 



SCYMNIIS. 



The first dorsal fin before or over the abrlominal fins, the second 

 dorsal behind them. Teeth in the upper jaw straight and narrow, in 

 the lower jaw crooked, pyramidal, and equal-sided. No anal fin; a 

 short tail. 



SPINOUS SHARK. 



Squalus spinosus, Tukton's Linn^us. 



Squale Boude Lacepede and Risso. 



Echinorhinus spinosus, Yarrell's Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 534. Taken 



from a figure by Dr. A. Smith, who gives it 

 the name of Echinorhinus obesus the E. 

 spinostis of Blainville. It is not easy to 

 suppose that Mr. Yarrell's more lengthened 

 figure at p. 532 can represent the same fish; 

 and at least his second figure alone can be 

 quoted for the examples found in Britain. 



The Spinous Shark was not known to naturalists before the 

 latter part of the last (eighteenth) century, and at present 

 little more is ascertained concerning it besides its figure and 

 the extent of sea through which it is distributed. Dr. Smith 

 obtained it at the Cape of Good Hope; it seems scarcely rare 

 in the Mediterranean, and in Britain it has been taken in 

 Yorkshire, at Brixham, and three or four times in Cornwall. 

 Its haunts probably are in very deep water, and consequently 

 little of its peculiar habits can be expected to become known, 

 except by some fortunate accident of uncertain occurrence. We 

 must rest content, therefore, in collecting what scattered notices 

 exist, with the addition of the very little obtained by obser- 

 vation. 



It is evident that this fish keeps near the ground in its 

 favourite places of resort, and that they are only a few stragglers 



