11 



SCYLLIUM. 



Generic Characters. — The snout depressed, short, and blunt; nostrils 

 with a channel extending to the edge of the lip; a temporal orifice 

 behind the eye; an anal fin; the two dorsals not before the ventral 

 fins. The generic name is from Ta 2x<AA(a, the common name em- 

 ployed by Aristotle for these fishes, — perhaps because the prickly 

 covering of their skin rendered them troublesome to handle. 



NURSE HOUND, 



BOUKCE AND CATFISH. 



Squalus caniculu, 

 Cahdus major, 



Scyllium catulus, 

 " stellaris, 



Le Squale Roussette, 



LlNN^US. 



WiLLOUGHBY AND Eay; p. 62, but the figure, 

 B 4, does not convey a proper idea of the fish. 



Fleming; British Animals, p. 165. 



Jenyns; Manual, p. 496. (Not of Hisso, Icth., 

 p. 31.) 



Yakrell; British Fishes, 2nd. ed., vol. ii., p. 

 493, but the figure is very imperfect as a 

 representation. 



Lacepede; Ed. I'an 6de la Eepublique, 12mo., 

 vol. ii., p. 8 ; but he confounds together this 

 and the Common Rough Hound. The Squalus 

 canicula, No. 112, La Eoussette tigree, the 

 Bounce of Bloch, has ocellated spots, and 

 certainly is not the Nurse Hound, probably 

 the Squalus stellaris of Authors. 



This species and the Rougli Hound, next to be mentioned, 

 are classed as ground Sharks, because their usual station is 

 near the bottom, where they seek their prey, mostly in rough 

 and rocky ground. Such of them as wander on more open 

 ground are of a lighter colour, in conformity with a law of 

 nature in fishes, by which they assume an intensity of tint 

 corresponding with the ground which they frequent. Their 

 food for the most part consists of crustaceous animals, as 



