REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 59 



Reproduction: Viviparous. 



Food: Crabs usually, also lobsters, squids, annelids and fishes. 



Size: Three to five feet. 



3. Carcharhinus obscurus (Le Sueur). Dusky Shark; Shovel-nose. 



Geog. Dist.: The Middle Atlantic. Occasional on Massachusetts shore; 



reported in Connecticut from Stratford (Linsley, 1S44); occasional on 



shore of Long Island. 

 Season in R. I.: Very common from May to November in outside waters; 



occasional in Narragansett Bay. 

 Habitat: Surface of the open water. 

 Food: Fishes. Stomach contents have shown skates, squeteague, young 



mackerel, menhaden. 

 Size: Eight to fourteen feet, smallest at Woods Hole, 2^ feet. (Smith.) 



(Baird, S. F. The Sea Fisheries of Eastern North America. 

 Report, U. S. Fish Comm. XIV, 1886, 3). 



4. Carcharhinus milberti (MuUer and Henle). Blue Shark. 



Geog. Dist.: Cape Cod to Florida. Reported from Woods Hole (Baird, 

 1873; Smith, 1898). 



Season in R. I.: De Kay describes a specimen 7 feet, 4 inches long, weigh- 

 ing 160 pounds, taken at Breton's Reef, September 1842. (De Kay, 

 New York Fauna, Fishes, 1842, 354.) Small specimens two or three 

 feet long occasionally taken in the fish traps in August and September. 



Food: Fishes. 



SPHYRNID.^. The Hammer-Headed Sharks. 



5. Sphyrna zygaena (Linnseus). Hammer-head. 



Geog. Dist.: All warm seas. From Cape Cod and Pt. Conception south- 

 w'ard. Reported occasionally on Cape Cod, northward to Provincetown; 

 taken at Noank, Connecticut (Goode, 1879). 



Season in R. I.: Not common, but occasionally occurring from June to 

 October. In 1905, a specimen three feet long taken August 2nd, in a 

 fish trap in West Passage, and another reported about two weeks later. 

 August 14, 1907, female 9 feet, 10 inches long, taken in trap at north 

 end of Conanicut Island. A few specimens 3 feet long are taken in the 

 traps each year in the lower part of Narragansett Bay. 



Reproduction. Viviparous. Thirty-seven embroyos have been taken 

 from the oviducts of a female 11 feet long. (GtJnther, 1880, p. 318.) 



Food: Fishes, especially menhaden; scjuids. (Gudger, Science, 25, 1907, 1005.) 



Size: Average 4 feet; specimens have been taken up to 13 feet in length. 



