386 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 14 
HABITAT IN OCEANO. 
‘*Totum corpus ad 15 pedes longum, supra nigricans, seu leucophxo- 
griseum, abdomine albicante. Caput antice planum. Rostrum ad 5 pedes 
longum, spinis validis numero utrinque 18-24. Os dentibus granulatis 
instructum. Oculi magniirideaurea. Pone oculos foramina duo oblonga. 
Spiracula quinque. Pinna dorsalis prima ventralibus opposita, altera inter 
primam & caud# apicem media. Pectorales late longeque. Caudalis 
brevior quam congeribus. 
This species and the following grow to the largest size of any which 
hive yet come under the inspection of the naturalist, some specimens 
measuring 15 feet in length. 
The head is rather flat at top, the eyes large, with yellow irides, behind 
which is a hole, which some have supposed may lead to an organ of 
hearing.* 

“Nos foramina hee meatus auditorios esse credimus. Willughb. 
The mouth is well furnished with teeth, but they are blunt, serving rather 
to bruise its prey than to divide it by cutting. Before the mouth are two 
other foramina, supposed to be the nostrils. The rostrum, beak or snout, 
is in general about one-third of the total length of the fish, and contains 
in some eighteen, in others as far as twenty-three or twenty-four spines on 
each side; these are very stout, much thicker at the back part, and chan- 
nelled, inclining to an edge forwards. The fins are seven in number, viz.: 
two dorsal, placed at some distance from each other; two pectoral, taking 
rise just behind the breathing-holes, which are five in number; two ven- 
tral, situated aimost underneath the first dorsal; and lastly the caudal, 
occupying the tail both above and beneath, but longest on the upper part. 
The general color of the body is a dull grey, or brownish, growing paler 
as it approaches the belly, where it “is nearly white.” (Latham, Trans. 
Linn. Soc., 1794, p. 277.) 
Mr. Latham thus describes his 
**Pristis pectinatus: 
Pr. rostro spinis angustioribus utrinque ad 34. Tab. 26, fig. 2. 
Pristis seu Serra, Gesner Aq., fig. in p. 728 (spin. 54), Id. Ic. An., p. 171- 
Mus. Besler, tab. 17, f. 3 (spin. 28). Id. f.1 (caput, spinis, 25) 
Alldr: (Get. £35 p. 692. Johnst:) Pisce. p: °S; ts i) (spins 128)-eblas. 
Anat., p. 466, t. 49, f. 18. Bloch, Deutsch. p. 37, t. 120 (rostr. ar- 
cuat.). Knorr, Delic., p. 56, t. H.4. Olear. Kunst., p. 38, t. 25, f. 
i. Pontop. Hist. Norv. ii, p. 240. (spin. 25.) 
HABITAT IN OCEANO. 
Corpus a priore non multum differt. Rostri spine longiores, & minus 
validw, numero variant a 25 usque ad 34. Pinna posticw magis excavate. 
This and the former species have been confounded hitherto by naturalists, 
