n. A Review of the Kinds of Local Fishes 



I. Sharks and Rays 

 (Elasmobranchii) 



Sharks are usually large fishes with the mouth on the lower side of 

 the head. They have a rough scaleless skin which covers both body and 

 fins, and their curiously shaped tails are longer above than below. Dog- 

 fish are smaller, but otherwise not different from sharks. The Smooth 

 Dogfish is abundant in all salt waters near New York in summer. It 

 feeds mostly on crabs, which it hunts by scent, and its teeth are small, 

 numerous and blunt, to deal with this kind of food, being unlike those of 

 any other shark. It is not particular in its diet, however, and may be 

 caught with almost any live or dead bait. Other characters which will 

 aid in identifying the Smooth Dogfish are, its slenderness, that it is 

 flattened below, and that the two back fins are of nearly the same size. 

 This species is frequently caught by anglers in pursuit of other fish. 

 Though little used, its flesh is nutritious and palatable, as it well may be, 

 for among the Smooth Dogfish's favorite foods are young lobsters and the 

 blue crab. It reaches a length of about three feet. The common large 

 shark in the latitude of New York is the Brown Shark. Females of this 

 species measuring about seven feet in total length enter the bays in mid- 

 summer to give birth to their young. They are destructive to other 

 fishes, consuming large quantities of flatfish in the vicinity of Fire Island 

 Inlet. This species has the first back fin (the front margin of which 

 measures more than half its distance from the snout) several times 

 larger than the second, placed well forward, shortly behind the breast 

 fin; its teeth have fine saw edges, the upper being triangular and much 

 broader than the lower. There is no keel on the side of the tail. Occa- 

 sional males of the related Cub Shark wander to our shores in summer. 

 This species has a very broad blunt snout, a lower dorsal fin, with front 

 margin one half or less its distance from the snout, and the second dorsal 

 fin a little more anterior in position than the anal. The Dusky Shark, 

 whose status in these waters is uncertain, has a snout like the Brown 

 Shark, dorsal fin even smaller than that of the Cub Shark, and narrower 

 pectoral fin than either. The Edged Shark, a rare straggler from the 

 south, differs from these three in having the upper teeth narrow, much 

 Uke the lower. Its fins are usually sharply edged and tipped with black. 

 This species is common as far north as the coast of North Carolina. 

 The Blue Shark, growing to be about ten feet long, is occasionally taken 

 in this vicinity, a straggler from the high seas. Its first back fin is placed 



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