Zoology."] 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. 



[Fishes. 



Measurements — continued. 



Reference. — =Port Jackson Shark, Phillip's Voy., p. 283 = Squalus Phil- 

 lipi, Lacep. Poiss., v. 1, p. 218 = Cestracion Phillipi, Cuv. R. A. = Jleterodontus 

 Phillipi, Blainville, Nouv. Bui. Sc, 1816, p. 121. 



In the admirable descriptive and illustrated memoir on the 

 Heterodonti, by Baron Miklouho-Maclay and Mr. W. Macleay, in 

 the Proceedings of the Linnsean Society of New South Wales 

 (Vol. in., pt. 4), the interesting fact is announced of all the teeth, 

 both front and lateral, being small, sharp-pointed, and with one 

 or two lateral cusps, in the young a few inches long ; showing a 

 resemblance to those of Notidanus, the two anterior cusps being- 

 more perpendicular. 



This Shark, so famous amongst zoologists and geologists under 

 the name of Cestracion, or Port Jackson Shark, is called the Bull-dog 



Shark by Victorians, from the form of the head 

 and muzzle. No other Shark has any approach 

 to the extraordinary structure, shape, and 

 arrangement of the teeth of this genus, 

 which has been taken by Agassiz and Owen 

 as illustrating in our time the European 

 fossil genus Cocliliodus of the Carboniferous 



Limestone formation ; to which, in my opinion 

 however, the relationship is not really close. 

 It is common in Hobson's Bay. The stomach 

 is filled with fragments of shells. There are 

 only two eggs at a time, laid once a year. 

 These eggs are very remarkable objects, not 

 uncommon on the shore ; they are conical in 

 shape, about 6 inches long, and surrounded 

 Egg ; half the natural size, with two broad keels extending spirally and 

 obliquely round the egg from one end to the other, like six turns 



Vol. II.— Decade XII.— Jr. " 55 ] 



