' PRISTIURUS MELANOSTOMUS. 95 



The subject of this chapter, lately separated from these as a genus by the 

 Prince of Musignano, on account only of its longer snout or muzzle, and 

 the distichously serrate upper edge of the tail, is, according to Risso, called 

 at Nice Lamharda ; and, if I am right in the foregoing synonymes, " is 

 well known," Mr. Yarrell says, "in the Mediterranean." In Britain a 

 single individual only seems at present to have been observed ; and in 

 Madeira it is certainly one of our rarest Sharks, although well-known to 

 the fishermen. 



Mr. Yarreirs history and drawing of this species having been taken by 

 Mr. Couch from a male, the accompanying figure with the followino- de- 

 scription are derived from a female individual, which was captured in the 

 month of February, and measured two feet and a half exactly in length. 



Muzzle much depressed and thin, and with the head as far back as the nape, 

 quite flat above; obtuse, yet more pointed than usual; plentifully pored above 

 and beneath ; the pores arranged in symmetric figures ; above, before the eyes, 

 there is a single large suboval central group, divided by a narrow plain space down 

 its middle, and behind this three smaller groups on each side placed in pairs ; one 

 close behind the first large patch ; the second further back upon the nape, the 

 pores of which are arranged in a double row; and the third lower down, behind the 

 spiracles on each side. Beneath the head, the arrangement of the groups is best 

 seen in the figure. Nostrils large, or obliquely elongated by a fissure, with the 

 edges lobed or flap-like in the middle between the two orifices of each, and closing 

 over each other ; but the nostrils of one side have no connection whatever either 

 with those of the other, or with the mouth; and, though placed rather nearer the 

 latter than the tip of the muzzle, are quite separate and remote from both. Mouth 

 and gape large, wide, triangular. Tongue smooth, broad and fleshy, like the 

 human. Teeth in both jaws alike, small, sharp, acuminate, with one or two short 

 denticles or toothlets on each side their base ; arranged quincuncially, seven in a 

 transverse oblique row, on a rather narrow band in each jaw. 



Eyes remarkably elongated, elliptic-oblong ; their sockets extend considerably 

 beyond the eyebaUs, which are longitudinally oval, like the pupils. The longitudi- 

 nal axis of the sockets is four or five times greater than the vertical, and is one 

 twenty-fourth part of the whole length of the fish. 



Spiracles rather large, conspicuous ; close behind the hinder canthus, and about 

 the size of the pupils of each eye. 



Shape of the body elongated, slender, no-where cylindric, but even close behind 

 the pectoral fins deeper than broad, and at the ventral fins decidedly compressed,' 

 becoming gradually more so towards the tail. Back plain and rounded, neither 

 keeled nor grooved in any part ; and there is no dimple or depression, either above 

 or beneath, at the root of the tail. The last of the five branchial slits is short and 

 small, and altogether above, not before, the base of the pectoral fins. 



The fore-edge of these last, which, as usual in the Sharks, are set on hori- 

 zontally, originates at the bottom of the last branchial slit but one. They are 

 large, very broad, or square-shaped, and truncate. 



The ventral fins begin a little way behind the ends or outer edges of the pecto- 

 ral ; they are oblong, rounded in front, acuminate or pointed behind, with the outer 

 edge oblique, as in Sc. canicula, Cuv. (Yarr. ii. 372, vignette, right-hand figure), 

 instead of truncate, as in Sc. catulus, Cuv. (Yarr. ii. 374, vignette, right-hand 

 figm'e.) The hinder edge of each behind the vent is connected with the body nearly 



