Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 185 



female with his mouth at the edge of her pectoral fin, these fins in females often being 

 much frayed in consequence." No information is available as to the duration of gestation 

 or the season when young are born. 



Relation to Man. Nurse Shark hides are used to some extent for leather, having at 

 present a higher value in the Florida fishery than those of other sharks, but the fins are 

 not in demand. The yield of oil is relatively low." In the West Indies they are sold to 

 some extent in the fish markets, as are most other sharks. On the islands off the southern 

 coast of Brazil the liver oil is said to be in high repute, and the otoliths of this species, as 

 well as those of other sharks, are used by the local fishermen as a diuretic." This shark is 

 perfectly harmless to bathers, and is too sluggish when hooked to be of any interest to 

 sport anglers. 



Range. Littoral, on both sides of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic; tropical West 

 Africa and the Cape Verde Islands in the east; southern Brazil to North Carolina and 

 accidentally to Rhode Island in the west; also west coast of America, from the Gulf of 

 California to Panama and Ecuador. 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. The Nurse Shark is very generally distributed 

 throughout the Caribbean— West Indian region." It is common around Jamaica and 

 Cuba," and in southern Florida waters among the Keys; and it is a year-round resident 

 on the west coast north to Tampa and for some distance up the east coast. It is likewise 

 known from Bermuda. In the warm months it expands its range to the northern coast of the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and occasional Nurse Sharks are taken near Charleston, South Carolina; 

 schools of them sometimes appear in summer off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and one 

 has been taken in the enclosed waters of Bogue Sound. But this is the boundary to regular 

 migrations in a northerly direction, the only records of them further north being one stray 

 individual for Chesapeake Bay, and one for Rhode Island. 



To the southward the Nurse Shark probably occurs all along the northeastern coast 

 of South America, it being known from Maceio in northern Brazil, from Rio de Janeiro, 

 and from South Trinidad Island off southern Brazil (Lat. 20° 30' S., Long. 29° 22' W.). 

 There is no report of it farther south. Curiously enough there is but one record of it for 

 the western shores of the Gulf of Mexico-Caribbean region, that being from Colon, 

 Panama. But it is to be expected anywhere there, judging from the generality of its dis- 

 tribution throughout the West Indian region. 



Synonyms and References: 



Chien de Mer Barbillon, Broussonet, Mem. Math. Phys. Acad. Sci. Paris, 1 780: 656. 



Gata, Parra, Hist. Nat., 1787: 86, pi. 34, fig. 2 (descr., Cuba). 



Squalus cirratus Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encyc. Meth. Ichthyol., 1788: 7 (descr., American seas); Gmelin, in Lin- 



12. See Gudger (Yearb. Carneg. Instn., //, 1912: 149) for a description. 



13. Springer, Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., 5, 1939: 14. 



14. Nichols and Murphy, Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist., 53, 1914: 262. 



15. Recorded from French and British Guiana, Trinidad, St. Croix, Turks Island, St. Martins and Barbados in the 

 Lesser Antilles, Jamaica, Haiti, Porto Rico, the Bahamas and Cuba. 



16. Personal communication from Luis Howell-Rivero. 



