228 



RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



a club on the point of the nose quietens them. It is astonishing 

 how easily they are stunned by a blow on that part ; on any 

 other place the same would have no eftect." 



Egg-cases of the Cat Sharks. 



The two types of egg-cases illustrated on Pis. xl. and xli. are 

 not uncommon on the coasts in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson^ 

 but so far I have not succeeded in determining to what species of 

 Shark they resjDectively belong. The majority of the cases which 

 I have examined have been cast-up on the beaches, empty. The 

 few I have seen alive have had the embryos insufficiently de- 

 veloped to make determination a certainty. They doubtless 

 belong to the Scyliorhinidpe, of which we have two members, 



assigned to the genera Catulus and Paras- 



cyllium I'espectively. 



Catulus analis, Ogilby, sp. 

 (Plate xl., and Fig. .38). 



Scyllhmi anale, Ogilby, Proc. Lima. Soc. 



N. S. Wales, X., 1885, pp .445, 464. 

 Scylliorhinus analis, Ogilby, loc. cit., (2), iv., 



1889, p. 180. 

 Catulus analis, Waite, Mem. Austr. Mus., 



iv., 1899, p. 31, pi. ii., fig. 1. 



This, the smaller of the Cat Sharks, attains 

 a length of 570 mm., and to it I tentatively 

 assign the egg-case illustrated on PI. xl. 

 The body of the case is comparatively long 

 and narrow, maximum examples measuring 

 73 mm. in length and 25 mm. in width. The 

 exact size and sliape of a large specimen is 

 depicted at fig. 38, and a contained embryo 

 measuring 32 mm. in length, was developed 

 only sufficiently to enable it to be identified 

 as a member of the family. The plate shows 

 an egg-case in situ, attached by its tendrils 

 to a sea-weed (Phyllospora coniosa). In 

 colour, the egg-(;ase of the Spotted Cat Shark 

 is usually dark brown, though some speci- 

 mens are much lighter in tint. 



Fig. 38. 

 Catulus analis, Ogilbj'. 



