Zoologi/.-\ NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. IFishes. 



Reference. — Giinther, Cat. Fish. B. M. v. viii., p. 387. 



This fish is a close representative of the European " Smooth- 

 Hound " or Ray-mouthed Dog-fish, as the species of this genus are 

 well called, from the blunt pavement of small, close, flat teeth, like 

 those of a Skate or Kay, and I have continued the epithet "smooth," 

 as, like the European species, the skin is softer and smoother than 

 in other Sharks or Dog-fish. On comparison with the English 

 Mustelus vulgaris^ the Australian representative has a slightly 

 smaller and more deeply notched 1st dorsal, which is also set 

 much farther ])ack than in M. vulgaris., its anterior margin in M. 

 A7itarcticus being clearly behind the inner posterior lobe of the 

 pectoral in most specimens, but in a fi*esh female now before me it 

 is slightly in front of it. A comparison of our figure with the 

 similarly-sized Cornish one in "Couche's Fishes of British Islands," 

 vol. 1, p. 47, will show these characteristic difierences clearly ; 

 although the 1st dorsal is too large and not suflficiently notched, 

 and there should be only one gill-opening behind the anterior edge 

 of pectoral ; the English fish, I find on comparison of specimens, 

 agreeing in these respects with the Australian one. In other 

 respects they are singularly alike, and agree altogether in food 

 and habits. 



This harmless little Dog-fish, feeding only on Zoophytes and 

 Crustacea and small shell-fish, was among those for which the 

 Victorian Government was induced to pay the fishermen, by mea- 

 surement, for their destruction, some hundreds of pounds during 



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