218 THRESHER SHARK, OR SEA FOX. 



probable that they hunt the salmon also, and the 

 wounds we often see upon the salmon may be the 

 marks of this shark's teeth. 



In March, 1880, a porbeagle was taken at Wick, and 

 Mr. Eeid wrote me: " Our fishermen caught a fine 

 specimen of this shark last week in their nets ; it 

 measured T^ft. in length ; there was nothing in its 

 stomach of notice. It was carted away for manure after 

 the liver was taken out." 



In September, 1867, Mr. Gerrard, Articulator to the 

 British Museum, informed me he had a porbeagle, mea- 



Fox-snAu:i. 



suring 8ft. 6in., which was caught off Margate in a 

 mackerel net. The stomach did not contain anything. 



About the middle of October, 1867, there were a 

 great many sharks off our coast, and it is strange we 

 did not find that any of them attacked bathers. In a few 

 days I had records of no less than seven sharks appear- 

 ing on the English coast, between the Isle of Wight and 

 the North Foreland. I have a fine cast of the Beaumaris 

 shark in my museum. 



The Sea-Fox, or Thresher [Carcharias viilpes, Squalus 

 viilpes, Sqwile renard), is frequently caught on the 

 British coast : it is called Sea-fox from the form of 

 the tail, which is very remarkable, the lower lobe being 

 very small, and tlie upper exceedingly long, curving up- 

 wards, and resembling the blade of a scythe. 



