Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 351 



its game qualities; we have caught none on light tackle. Some anglers describe it as 

 putting up a fast fight when hooked and often jumping clear of the water, but according 

 to others it is more stubborn and "mulish" than active in its resistance. 



Range. Pelagic in tropical and subtropical seas; southern Brazil to North Carolina 

 and occasionally to New York and southern New England in the western Atlantic; Ma- 

 deira, Cape Verde Islands and tropical West Africa (Dakar, and Kribi in Cameroon) in 

 the eastern Atlantic; also eastern tropical Pacific, from Lower California to Peru.*" A 

 shark (or sharks) is also reported under this same name from Cochin China, India, Red 

 Sea, Seychelles, Madagascar and Natal. But its actual relationship to limbatus of the 

 eastern Pacific and Atlantic cannot be determined until specimens from the different 

 ocean areas have been compared critically. 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. This can be outlined only within broad limits, 

 partly because of the uncertainty in some cases as to whether published records actually 

 refer to Ihnbatus or to maculipnnu, and partly because reliable records for it are very 

 irregularly distributed. It is certainly one of the commoner, if not the commonest, pelagic 

 shark around the Bahamas and southern Florida; also along the coasts of Mississippi and 

 Louisiana, where many are caught by shrimp fishermen, and of Texas" at least in the 

 warm season. In all probability it is equally widespread and locally common through- 

 out the West Indian-Caribbean region in general and in the southern part of the Gulf 

 of Mexico; but published records of it there are confined to Haiti, Porto Rico (where 

 it is said to be one of the commoner sharks), Turks Island, Martinique, Antilles in 

 general and Surinam. Southward It Is common along the coast of Brazil at least as far as 

 Rio de Janeiro (reported also from Bahia and from Ilha de Victoria) ; but It has not been 

 reported farther south. No doubt it is present In the truly tropical belt throughout the 

 year, and it is common around southern Florida throughout spring, summer and autumn." 

 During the warm months many visit the coast of South Carolina, and a few are taken in 

 some summers along the southern half of North Carolina. To the north of Cape Hatteras, 

 however. It occurs on the coast only as a stray, there being only about six reliable reports of 

 it for the vicinity of New York and Long Island. But at least twenty small ones were taken 

 In pound nets on the eastern shore of Buzzards Bay, near Woods Hole, during the summer 

 of 1878, and one other in the summer of 19 16, which shows that it reaches the southern 

 New England coast in unusual numbers at rare intervals. Nor Is It unusual to see Black- 

 tipped Sharks In the warm oceanic waters off this sector of the continental shelf in summer, 

 drifting north in the Gulf Stream, probably never to return to their tropical home. 



45. There appears to be nothing in the accounts of aethlorus Jordan and Gilbert, 1882, from the west coast of 

 Mexico and Lower California to separate it from limbatus as Garman (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 56, 1913: 

 127) has already concluded; also Meek and Hildebrand (Field Mus. Publ. Zool., 75 [i], 19^3: 43). after 

 examining the type specimen. Neither has our own examination of the type specimen of natator Meek and Hilde- 

 brand, 1923, from Panama revealed significant differences from the Atlantic specimens of limbatus (listed 

 above) whether in shape of snout, shape and relative positions of fins, teeth, or color. 



46. Personal communication from J. L. Baughman; see Study Material, p. 346. 



47. Not reported there in December, January or February. 



