SCYLLIUM. 



81 



sembling the cats, are placed low, towards the 

 snout. Beside the above marks, it will be recog- 

 nised by an anal fin, exactly opposite the space 



which is between the two dorsals. When the 

 dead body is handled, it is as flexible as a whip- 

 lash, — tough and leathery. Though we know 

 nothing with certainty of its habits, it probably 

 possesses all the traits of character, peculiar to the 

 order. 



Scyllium Catulus, — a little shark, very sim- 

 ilar to the preceding, only about eighteen inches 

 long. Its color is that of ashes — having shades 

 of a red tinge, when first drawn from the water, on 

 the sides, towards the corners of the mouth. The 

 mouth, in this, is small, and shaped much like a 

 horse-shoe, — but so completely underside the 

 head, further back than the eyes, that it is strange 

 they can apply the jaws at all, to hold their prey. 

 One of these miniature sharks, the past season, 

 was drawn into a pleasure boat, by a gentleman 

 6 



