398 SQUALID.E. 



This species has the smallest teeth in proportion to its size 

 of any of the Sharks. No remains of fish have been found 

 in its stomach. One examined by Mr. Low contained a red 

 pulpy mass, like bruised crabs, or the roe of Echini. Mr. 

 Low adds, that this Shark ""s appearance, manners, and Avea- 

 pons do not indicate it to be a ravenous fish. Linnaeus says 

 that its food is Medus(X, and Pennant considered that it sub- 

 sisted on marine plants. 



The body is thickest about the middle, and diminishes 

 towards both extremities ; when afloat the form is nearly cy- 

 lindrical ; the skin thick and rough, of a brownish black co- 

 lour, with tints of blue. The head conical, the muzzle short, 

 rather blunt, smooth, and pierced with numerous circular 

 pores ; eyes near the snout, small, oval, the elongation hori- 

 zontal, the irides brown ; half-way between the eye and the 

 first branchial opening is the temporal orifice, oblique and 

 small ; branchial openings five on each side, of great vertical 

 length, each set including the whole side of the neck, and 

 leaving only a small space above and below ; nostrils oval, 

 small, placed rather laterally, and opening on the edge of 

 the upper lip ; pectoral fins of moderate size for so large a 

 fish, — perhaps, as before stated, the largest of the true fishes, 

 — the form somewhat triangular, placed close to the last bran- 

 chial orifice, convex anteriorly and thick, slightly concave 

 and much thinner behind ; the ventral fins also of moderate 

 size, rather elongated at the base, placed behind the middle 

 of the whole length of the fish, convex in front, concave be- 

 hind, the inner and posterior half free, exhibiting in the 

 figure chosen the cylindrical appendages peculiar to the male. 

 The first dorsal fin, placed before the middle of the whole 

 length of the fish, is much the larger of the two, forming an 

 elevated triangle ; anterior edge but slightly convex, posterior 

 edge concave, with an elongated point at the base directed 



