Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 523 



sioned any printed comment; we find but two records from the coast of Nova Scotia, one 

 being from Cape Breton and the other near Halifax." 



In view of its apparent scarcity in Nova Scotian waters, it is somewhat astonishing 

 that there is published record of about 27 specimens in the Gulf of Maine up to 1938, with 

 several more reported subsequently by local fishermen. The localities include Passama- 

 quoddy Bay (tributary to the Bay of Fundy), off Eastport, Portland and Cape Elizabeth, 

 Maine; Jeffrey's Ledge,'^ inner part of Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay, tip of Cape 

 Cod, and the southwestern part of the Gulf of Maine basin. This distribution is wide 

 enough to show that odd specimens are to be expected anywhere in the western side of the 

 Gulf at any time of year. In fact, it is rumored that in early colonial times, when Atlantic 

 Right Whales were still being killed in numbers off the Massachusetts coast, the Green- 

 land Sharks were more abundant there than they have been at any time during the last 

 hundred years. None have been reported either from the Nova Scotian side of the Gulf 

 on the one hand, although this lies in their route from the north, or westward from Cape 

 Cod on the other; but recorded captures in the Gulf of Maine include both small and 

 large specimens (five small ones, from only 39 inches up to four to five feet long, off 

 Portland between 1925 and 1933) ; furthermore, they have been recorded for November, 

 January, February, March, April, June and August; these facts suggest that the partial 

 enclosure of the comparatively deep western waters of the Gulf by the shoaler banks to 

 the south forms a sort of cul-de-sac for any that may stray that far. Once arrived, they 

 may survive there for years. 



Synonyms and References: 



Haa-Skierding, Gunnerus, Trondh. Selsk. Skrift., 2, 1763: 330, pi. 10, II (size, food, descr., Norway). 



Squdus carcharias Gunnerus, Drontheim Gesellsch. Schr., 2, 1766: 299, pi. 10, 11 (size, food, descr., Nor- 

 way) ; Muller, Prod. Fauna Danica, 1776: 38 (Denmark) ; Fabricius, Fauna GrocnI., 1780: 127 (general 

 account, food, abund. W. Greenland) ; not Squalus carcharias Linnaeus, I 758. 



Haa-Kiacrringen, Rosted, K. norske \'idcnsk.-Selsk. Skr., N. S. 2, 1788: 203, I pi. (fishery, Norway). 



Squalus mkrocefhalus Bloch and Schneider, Syst. Ichthyol., 1801: 135 (refs., descr., Arctic Seas); Blain- 

 ville, in Vieillot, Faune Franc, 1825: 66 (ref. to Bloch and Schneider, 1801). 



Squalus squatina Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso .^siat., 5, 1814:^^ 64 (White and Arctic Seas) ; not Squalus squalina Lin- 

 naeus, 1758. 



Acanthorhinus TtorzL-egianus Blainville, Bull. Soc. philom. Paris, 8, I 816: 12 1.^' 



Squalus brevifinna Lesueur, J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., /, 1818: plate facing p. 222 (ill., spec, from Massa- 

 chusetts). 



Somniosus brez-ipnna Lesueur, J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., i, I 81 8: 222 (descr. of spec. ill. as Squalus brevi- 

 pmia, Marblehead, Massachusetts); Bory de St. Vincent, Diet. Class. Hist. Nat., 75, 1829: 597 (ref., 

 Massachusetts); Storer, Rep. Fish. Rept. Birds Mass., 1839: 189 (Massachusetts); Boston J. nat. Hist., 

 2| 1839: 541 (descr., Massachusetts); Gill, Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 1863: 333 (.Massachusetts); 



34. Storer, Boston J. Nat. Hist., 6, 1857: 270; Jones, Proc. N. S. Inst. Sci., 5 (i), 1882: 96. 



35. Six specimens, which ranged in length from 39 inches upward and were taken in the months of January, Febru- 

 ary', April, June and .•\ugust, have been reported to us by W. W. Rich for this general region since 1925. 



36. It is generally accepted that 18 14 is the date of publication of the part of volume 5 in question; see Cat. Library 

 Brit. Mus., page 1505. 



37. Name only, but identification probable by Inference. 



