SHARKS 43 



in my nets June 25, there were eleven of .these chunks of 

 shark meat of from one to five pounds each in weight, and 

 they represented hammerhead, sharp-nosed and ground 

 sharks " 



In parts of India the natives affirm that the Tiger Shark 

 prefers its food a little high, and they therefore make a 

 practice of burying meat that is to be used for bait in the 

 ground for a day or so. Dr. Jerdon, a keen observer of 

 Indian fishes, has noted that this shark cunningly swells 

 itself out so as to look like a floating mass of animal substance, 

 and, having thus decoyed its prey, it immediately attacks 

 it. It has several times been known to attack men, and is 

 more dreaded in the West Indies than any other shark. 



Even the Sting Ray, with its whip-like tail armed with a 

 jagged, poisonous spine, is by no means immune from attack 

 by the Tiger Shark, which has been observed to circle round 

 one of these rays, sparring for an opening, as it were, and then 

 to dart in and seize the prey in spite of the vigorous lashing of 

 its tail. The " sting " does not seem to have any ill-effect 

 upon the Shark, and Captain Young, a shark-hunter of world- 

 wide experience, affirms that the saw-edged spines work 

 their way out through the walls of the stomach, get among 

 the muscles, and then, like needles, work their way towards 

 the head or the tail according to the direction in which they 

 happen to be pointing. 



In the ' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of London ' for the year 1784 there is a very interesting paper 

 by Mr. William Andre, in which he describes the jaws of a 

 Tiger Shark with a portion of the spine of a Sting Ray 

 " driven quite through the lower jaw among the posterior 

 teeth, and fixed almost immovably". His picture of the 

 teeth with the spine in situ reveals one interesting feature, a 

 feature which provides ample confirmation of the forward 

 movement of the teeth that goes on throughout life. The 

 embedding of the spine in the jaw had injured one of the 

 tooth buds, causing two imperfect right and left halves to 

 develop instead of a normal tooth, and this malformation was 

 not confined to the row containing the spine but occurred as 

 well in every row in front of it. 



The Tiger Shark is known as a prolific breeder, but little is 



