70 



the eye, resembling very much the lens of that organ ; the 

 extreme softness of the bones, which can be pierced even in their 

 hardest parts by a needle, with the greatest ease ; the absence of 

 branchial rays ; and the existence of only a trace of humeral 

 bones. Length 8^ inches. 



From an imperfect dissection, all that he was permitted 

 to make, I\Ir. Ayres had ascertained a few particulars with 

 regard to its anatomy. 



The ovaries present a striking peculiarity in their want of 

 symmetry. They are dissimilar in form, size and shuation ; a 

 character unknown in any other genus. 



The apparently single bone proceeding from the cranium to 

 the articulation of the lower jaw, is found to consist of the tem- 

 poral, tympanal, and jugal bones united. Of the other bones of 

 the cheek no ossification can be found. The organ on the cheek 

 resembling the lens of the eye, is found under the microscope to 

 be composed of muscular fibres, and is probably part of the 

 masseter. (For the paper in full see Journal of the Boston Soci- 

 ety of Natural History, Vol. VI. No. 1.) 



Dr. Storer had recently received from Capt. Atwood, of 

 Provincetown, a beautiful specimen of Zygcena, Hammer- 

 head Shark. The Zygcena of our waters has been hith- 

 erto considered by naturalists the Z. malleus. Dr. Storer 

 had never before seen a perfect specimen. From an exam- 

 ination of the specimen from Provincetown he was now 

 enabled to say that the species is not the malleus, but a 

 new one, to which he proposes to give the name Z. suhar- 

 cuata. Dr. Storer exhibited a fine drawing of the fish, 

 and read the following account of it. 



"When my ' Report on the Fishes of Massachusetts' was 

 published, in 18.37, I had not seen a specimen of a Zygcena 

 belonging to our waters. Two years afterwards, I received a 

 dried one, which was taken at Chatham, on the south side of 

 Cape Cod. Imperfect as it was, I described it in a supplement to 

 my report, which appeared in the fourth volume of our Society's 



