Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 3 i 



shoals off Cape Lookout, and some have been said to visit the sounds and brackish 

 rivers along the coast of North Carolina,*" though this perhaps calls for verification." 

 A few even pass Cape Hatteras to enter the lower part of Chesapeake Bay, where one 

 or two are sometimes taken in a year, but sometimes none. Stray specimens, all large, 

 have been recorded also from Ocean City, Maryland, from the southern part of the 

 New Jersey Coast, and one from the vicinity of New York more than a century and 

 a half ago,'- this last being the most northerly record (backed by good evidence) for 

 it on the Atlantic Coast of America. '^^ 



It is also known to occur occasionally around Bermuda, where a small one was 

 found in the stomach of a dolphin; a second, with a saw 18 inches long, was taken 

 near St. Davids; and a third (large) has been reported as seen.** But it is not likely 

 that there is a locally maintained stock of Sawfishes in Bermudan waters, otherwise 

 they would be reported more frequently there. 



Synonyms and Atlantic References:** 



Saegefisch, Bloch, Naturg. ausliind. Fische, j, 1785: 41, pi. 120 (descr., ill., embryo, saw, ident. by no. of teeth 

 and position of first dorsal; Brazil, but ref. to Spitzbergen erroneous, see p. 30, fn. 77). 



Pes de Espada, Parra, Descr. Piez. Hist. Nat. Havana, 1787: 75, pi. 33 (descr., ill., Cuba). 



Le Squale Scie, Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4° Ed., in Buffon, Hist. Nat., I, 1798: 286, pi. 8, fig. 4 (descr., 

 ident. by no. sawteeth and fins, coast of Africa, but other species perhaps included); and in Sonnini, Hist. 

 Nat. Poiss., 4, 1801-1802: 128 (descr., size). 



Squalus prislis Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encyc. Meth. Ichthyol., 1788: 11, pi. 8, fig. 24 (diagn., ill., ident. by no. 

 sawteeth, fins, size; Europ. Ocean); Schopf, Beschreib. nordamer. Fische, Schr. Ges. Naturf Freunde 

 Berlin, 8, 1788: 185 (15-ft. specimen. New York, 1782, ident. by no. sawteeth). 



Pristis pectinatus Latham, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 2, 1794: 278, pi. 26, fig. 2 (descr., ill. of saw, "Hab. in 

 Oceano," doubtless Atlant.); Bloch and Schneider, Syst. Ichthyol., 1801: 351, pi. 70, fig. i (descr., ill. 

 labelled "/'. serra" "in Oceano"); Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4° Ed., in Buffon, Hist. Nat., 4, 1801- 

 1802: 680 (other species considered varieties); Risso, Ichthyol. Nice, 18 10: 22 (listed, Nice, Italy); 

 Cuvier, Regne Anim., 2, 1 8 17: 131, ftn. 4 (ref to Latham, 1794); Blainville, in Vieillot, Faune Franj., 

 1825: 51, pi. 12, fig. 3 (diagn., no. sawteeth, meas., color, France by ref to Risso, 1810; ill. not seen); 

 Risso, Hist. Nat. Europ. Merid., 3, 1826; 141 (diagn., S. Europe); MuUer and Henle, Plagiost., 1841 : 

 109 (Cayenne specimen ident. by no. sawteeth, but other species perhaps included); Bonaparte, Cat. 

 Pesc. Europ., 1846: 15 (included with query); Miiller and Troschel, in Schomburgk (Robert), Reisen 

 Brit. Guiana, J, Schomburgk (Rich.), Fauna Flora Brit. Guiana, 1848: 642 (size, Brit. Guiana); Gray, 

 List Fish. Brit. Mus., i, 1851 : 90 (listed, Mexico, W. Indies, but refs. only in part and specimens from 

 C. Good Hope and Calcutta perhaps not this species); Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., j, 1865: 475, pi. 9, 

 fig. 3 (descr., ill. of saw, Haiti, but Red Sea ref. perhaps not this species); Poey, Repert. Fisico-Nat. Cuba, 

 2, 1868: 456 (diagn., nos., Cuba); Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 8, 1870: 437 (W. Indies, Mexico 

 specimens, but refs. for Calcutta and C. Good Hope perhaps not this species); Brito-Capello, J. Sci. 

 math. phys. nat. Lisboa, 4 (13), 1872: 88 (listed, Angola); Doderlein, Man. Ittiol. Medit., 2, 1881: 



80. Smith, Bull. N. C. geol. econ. Surv., 2, 1907: 39. 



81. According to Gudger, it had never been taken in Beaufort Harbor (Proc. bid. Soc. Wash., 25, 1912: 144). 



82. By Schopf, Beschreib. nordamer. Fische, Schr. Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin, S, 1788: 185. 



83. A Sawfish, seemingly this species because of the number of rostral teeth, was included by Denys (Hist. Nat. Amer. 

 Septent., 1672, as quoted by Co.ic [Bull. nat. Hist. Soc. New Brunsw., 3 (13), 1896: 29]) in early Colonial days 

 in an enumeration of fishes from the southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But the saw in question probably 

 had been brought as a curiosity from some southern port. 



84. Beebe and Tee-Van, Field Bk. Shore Fish. Bermuda, 1933: 30. 



85. See Beebe and Tee-Van (Zoologica N. Y., 26, 1941: 253-254) for references as P. peclinatus for the Pacific Coast 

 of Central America; Fowler (Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., 100 [jj], 1941: 291) for the western Pacific-Indian Ocean 

 region. 



