264 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MCJSEUM. 



The only other Australian example of Cetorhinus previously 

 known, was caught in November, 1883, at Portland, on the western 

 coast of Victoria. This specimen was described by McCoy,' who 

 writes: — "I find another extremely curious and interesting 

 point, not before noticed, viz., that its food, as with many 

 Whales, is often composed of myriads of the minute, floating, 

 oceanic Pteropodous Mollusca. Of the scores of Basking Sharks 

 that have been opened in the Northern Hemisphere, not one 

 contained any remains of fishes or large objects, and the food 

 was, until now, unknown. Linnaeus mentions Medusae, Pennant 

 suggests sea-weeds, and Mr. Low(e) says he found a pulpy red 

 mass, which he likened to bruised crabs, or the roe of Echini. 

 Neither crabs nor Echini could be obtained by a creature like 

 this, too large to approach the shallow shores, and in all probability 

 what Mr. Lowe saw was what I have here noted, the red pulpy 

 mass filling the intestines of our example being altogether composed 

 of body and shells of a species of the genus Cuvieria or Triptera, 



the mass being tinted of a 'boiled shrimp' red from the 



remains of the soft parts, colored like the much larger Triptera 

 rosea of Quoy and Gaimard." 



With the foregoing passage in mind, I requested Mr. Charles 

 Hedley also to examine the food, and he came to the same con- 

 clusion as Mr. Whitelegge and myself, namely that remains of 

 Mollusca were not present, all recognisable matter being crusta- 

 ceous. No one will doubt the determination of the late Sir 

 Fredk. McCoy, nor likewise the pronouncement of my two 

 colleagues. 



The two findings are not, however, as might on first sight 

 appear, at variance, but merely emphasise the fact that Cetorhinus 

 is a surface feeder, both the Mollusca and Crustacea, having many 

 pelagic representatives. The shark, passing open-mouthed through 

 a sea of surface life, would be perfectly indifierent as to whether 

 it was composed of Pteropods or Munida, and moreover would be 

 incapable of discrimination. 



A beautiful illustration of parallel adaptation is furnished by 

 two widely different animals, the Right Whale and the Basking 

 Shark ; both feed in precisely the same way upon the same food, 

 and the function of a sieve, performed by the baleen in the whale, 

 is discharged by a curious modification of the gills in the shark. 



"The Right Whale — and the following statements apply, of 

 course, to the southern as well as the polar Right Whale — feeds, 

 as is well known, upon minute pelagic creatures. The minuteness 

 of tlie food led the ancients to the belief that they lived on water 

 only. Pteropods and Crustacea form the bulk of its food, which 

 it has not, therefore, to laboriously collect. The Arctic seas 

 are often dyed for acres with these small floating animals, .... 



1 McCoy— Prod. Zool. Vic, ii., Dec. xi., 1885, p. 11, pi. civ. 



