288 Ayres' Enumeration of the 



Carcharias griseus. Ayres. 



This shark I have met with in but one instance ; it was 

 taken in a net August 11, 1841. 



It cannot, I think, be referred to any one of the species 

 described by Dr. Dekay, and I have been unable to find any 

 description with which it agrees. With its habits I am un- 

 acquainted. 



MusTELus cANis. Mitch. 



This is the most common, and in fact the only common, 

 species of this family found in these waters ; they are fre- 

 quently taken in nets drawn for other fish, though never, I 

 believe, more than one or two at a time. The largest one I 

 have seen, measured fifty-one inches in length. They are 

 universally called by the fishermen, dog-fish, which, according 

 to Dr. Mitchill and Dr. Dekay is the name by which they are 

 distinguished near New York. Indeed their general resem- 

 blance to the dog-fish is very striking, and an inexperienced 

 observer may be readily excused for confounding the two. 

 From the form of their teeth we may naturally suppose that 

 their food does not consist of fish. The stomach of one 

 which I examined contained shrimps, a small crab, and the 

 fragments of a specimen of Mactra ovalis. 



As this species is not mentioned in Dr. Storer's Report, it 

 seems probable that it does not inhabit so far north as the 

 coast of Massachusetts ; how much beyond New York it ex- 

 tends to the south we cannot at present determine. 



Spinax acanthias. Lin. 



The dog-fish, though said by Dr. Storer to be at some sea- 

 sons very common on the coast of Massachusetts, is in Brook- 

 haven very rare. I saw but one specimen ; it was taken in 

 Old Man's Harbor, May 21, 1841. 



