FAMILY SQUAL1D.-E. 365 



GENUS PRISTIS. Latham. 



Snout ■produced into a long flattened sword-shaped plate, armed on each side with strong 

 pointed and trenchant osseous spines, implanted like teeth. The true teeth are small, flat, 

 and rounded as in Mustelus. Branchial apertures beneath. 



Obs. This genus, as revised by Latham and others, now comprises seven species. It 

 forms, by the position of its branchial apertures, a natural passage to the following family, 

 from which it is otherwise separated by its elongated body. Some naturalists have, however, 

 arranged it under the family Raiidce, while others have more precisely erected it into a 

 separate and distinct family. 



THE COMMON SAW-FISH. 



PRISTIS ANTKiOORUM. 



Squalus pristis. Linneiis, Syst. Ni'.t. 



S. id- Schcepff, Bescreibung, &c. Vol. 8, p. 185. 



P. antiqunrum. Latham, Linn. Tr. Vol. 2, p. 282. 



Saw-Shark. Pennant, Arct. Z'iol. Supplement, p. 105. 



Pristis antiquorum. Latham, Linn. Transact. Lond. Vol. 2, p. 282. 



Pez de cspada ? Parra, Descripcion, &c. p. 75, pi. 33. 



P. antiquorum. Richardson, fide Cuvier, Sixth Rep. Br. Association, Vol. 5, p. 222. 



Characteristics. Dusky above ; pale grey below. Elongated beak, with twenty-four teeth 

 on each side. Length fifteen feet. 



Description. I have never met with an undoubted specimen from our coast, and am there- 

 fore compelled to cite from Schcepff the only account extant of this species as occurring in 

 our waters : "An individual was captured at New-York in July, 1782. It was fifteen feet 

 " long, including the saw. This had twenty-four teeth on each side, which were very sharp, 

 " and appeared as if they had been sharpened against hard bodies. The air-holes in the 

 " vicinity of the eyes had valvular openings. The skin, particularly of the fins, was of the 

 "finest shagreen." This or another species, most probably the Pez de Espada of Parra, 

 occurs along our southern shores. I find in the New World, a weekly journal published in 

 New-York, an account of a Saw-fish which was captured in 1841, among the Keys of 

 Florida. No details were given, to enable one to determine the species. 



It remains to notice, at the conclusion of this family, a few species, which have been 

 vaguely, or on loose authority, assigned to our coast ; or which have been so imperfectly 

 noticed as to leave a doubt as to their being real species. 

 Squalus carcharias. (Mitchill, Lit. and Phil. Tr. Vol. 1, p. 485.) This appears to have been 



inserted at random, or more probably confounded with S. maximus. There is no evidence of 



its occurrence on the coast of the United States. 



