42 PORBEAGLT. 



placed them together, imd he assigns as his reason for this 

 change of opinion, that he had had opportunities of examining 

 four examples, which had been taken on different parts of the 

 coast since 1837 the date of the publication of the first edition 

 of his work and which has induced him to believe that the 

 differences observed between them and the more frequent forms, 

 are only the effects of greater age. 



Something like this I have myself noticed; for in the largest 

 Porbeagle I have ever seen, and which measured almost nine 

 feet in length, the snout appeared much smaller than in appa- 

 rently much younger examples; and the first dorsal fin appeared, 

 even by measurement, nearer to the tail than is usual in the 

 Porbeagle. The lateral ridge was carried along so high on the 

 side, as to be nearly level with the flattened surface of the 

 back, near the setting on of the tail; from which position it 

 was bent down suddenly to pass along its usual situation on 

 the tail, in the manner represented in Donovan's plate 108. 

 The two divisions of the tail were nearly equal; and so dif- 

 ferent was the appearance of this fish from that of the smaller 

 and more common examples of the Porbeagle, as to leave the 

 impression that it was specifically distinct; until a further 

 examination removed all doubt on the subject. 



This fish is not noticed in the tenth edition of Linnaeus's 

 System, having probably been confounded, as were several others, 

 with the White Shark; until it was distinguished from the latter 

 by Dr. Borlase, in his "Natural History of Cornwall." 



One of the first of the two examples of the Beaumaris 

 Shark, as described by Pennant, was a female, and contained 

 yovmg ones within it, which, however, were only two in number; 

 a circumstance which would lead us to suppose that it is a 

 scanty breeder. But it is to be regretted that those young 

 ones were not more closely examined and described; as from 

 them we might have been able to collect more clearly the 

 proof of their being either of a new or a well-known and 

 recognised species. 



The Porbeagle is a common visitor on the western coasts in 

 summer, and not unfrequently it wanders along the eastern 

 borders of England, and even of Scotland. An instance has 

 been known of its having been taken even in Orkney. It 

 usually proceeds in small scattered companies, preying on 



