128 Transactions. 



17. Scymnorhinus licha Bonnaterre. 

 Plate IV, tig. 1. 

 Squalus licha Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encycl. Ichth.. 1788, p. 12. 



Mr. A. Hamilton, Director of the Dominion Museum, Wellington, for- 

 warded to me for determination, a shark which proves to be of this species. 

 It was originally recorded as an inhabitant of New Zealand waters by the 

 late T. J. Parker,* who identified an example taken near Otago Heads, in 

 1882, with Scymnas lichia. 



Though the specimen now to hand does not constitute a record for the 

 Dominion, it is of sufficient interest to note as being only the second speci- 

 men known from our seas. Parker's example was a gravid female ; ours 

 is a male, and measures 1250 mm. in total length. Both agree in being of 

 uniform dark-brown coloration. 



A cast of the specimen was made for exhibition in the Canterbury 

 Museum, and a photograph of the cast is reproduced on Plate IV, fig. 1. It 

 should be noted that while the relative position of the fins, &c, is fairly 

 well shown, the head appears much too short owing to the distortion pro- 

 duced by the angle subtended by the photographic lens. 



An excellent figure, of which I have seen a tracing, will shortly be issued 

 by Mr. A. R. McCulloch. The specimen selected for illustration is one of 

 nine examples taken by the Federal trawler " Endeavour " in the Aus- 

 tralian Bight. 



18. Mora pacifica sp. nov. 

 Plate V. 



D. 7, 44 ; A. 17, 18 ; P. 18 ; V. 6 ; C. 21 + 14 ; L. lat. 94 ; L. tr. 9 + 23. 



Length of head, 4-0 ; height of body, 3-1 ; length of caudal, 5-5 in the 

 length : diameter of eye, 3-2 ; length of snout, 5-2 ; and interorbital space, 

 4-8 in the head 



Head flat ; snout depressed ; mouth oblique, the maxilla extending to 

 beneath the third fourth of the orbit, upper jaw a little the longer ; eye 

 large, near to the upper profile ; interorbital space broad and flat ; a barbel 

 below the chin. 



Teeth. — Cardiforin teeth in bands in the jaws and on the vomer ; none 

 on the palatines. 



Fins. — • The first dorsal commences three-fourths of an eye-diameter 

 behind the head, or one-fourth its distance from the snout to the middle 

 caudal rays ; its anterior rays are twice as long as the eye ; the fin is joined 

 by membrane to the second fin, which extends posteriorly beyond the ter- 

 mination of the second anal. The anterior anal commences nearer the end 

 of the middle caudal rays than the snout, and it is widely separated from 

 the second anal. The pectoral is placed rather low, close behind the head, 

 and its length equals its distance from the anterior margin of the orbit ;. 

 its root is wholly in advance of the dorsal, and it reaches to below the third 

 ray of the second fin. The ventral base lies wholly in advance of the pec- 

 toral ; its first ray is produced as a bristle, its total length being equal to 

 the post-orbital length of the head. The caudal is slightly forked, and its 

 narrow low peduncle is but five-sixths the diameter of the eye in depth. 



Scales. — -The head and body entirely covered with moderate cycloid 

 scales. The lateral line is complete ; it arises behind the opercle, and, form- 



* Parker, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 15, 1883, p. 222. 



