PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 353 
Color very dark sooty, almost black above, grayish black below, with- 
out spots or distinct markings. A very obscure grayish lateral streak. 
Inside of upper lip blotched with biack. Young specimen clear brown. 
This species is known to us from two Specimens, the larger, a female 
43 inches in length, the type of the present description, having been 
obtained by James G. Swan, assistant to the United States Fish Com- 
mission, at Neah Bay, near Cape Flattery. The other was secured by 
Mr. Gilbert at Soquel, on the Bay of Monterey. 
This species is closely related to Heranchus griseus Raf. of the Medi- 
terranean and Eastern Atlantic. It differs chiefly in the form of the 
teeth of the lower jaw, which are serrated on the inner edge, and have 
on the upper or outer edge only six cusps instead of eight or nine. 
Another Notidanoid shark, belonging to the related genus Heptran- 
chias, distinguished by the presence of seven gill-openings instead of six, 
is found with the present speciesin the same waters. This is Heptranchias 
maculatus, the Notorhynchus maculatus or Notorhynchus borealis of Ayres 
and Gill. This species differs from Heptranchiag indicus, with which it 
has been confounded by Giinther and Duméril, in the lack of a median 
tooth in the upper jaw, and in the longer tail, which forms rather more 
than a third of the total length. 
Heptranchias maculatus is rather common on the coast of California from 
Monterey northward. In Humboldt Bay it is especially abundant, and 
the pursuit of it for the oil in its liver is an industry of some importance. 
The teeth in this species undergo some changes with age, and at least 
are subject to some individual variations, as will be seen from the fol- 
lowing descriptions, which may be compared with Professor Gill’s ac- 
count of the jaws of Notorhynchus maculatus (Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 
1862, 495) from Nisqually, Washington Territory. 
Description of Heptranchias maculatus, juv., from Soquel. 
Head rather depressed, broad, rounded. The nostrils almost at the tip 
of the snout. Length of the snout much less than the interorbital 
width. Spiracle rather large, nearer the gill-openings than the eye. A 
long furrow at the angle of the mouth, above which the upper lip ex- 
tends backward in a broad fold. 
In the upper jaw no median tooth; two small teeth near together, 
well in front, simple and pointed; two alittle larger, behind and outside 
of these; then two more, similar, near together and directly within the 
first pair; then directly behind the second pair mentioned two much 
larger ones, pointed, each with a conspicuous cusp on the outer edge 
near the base on each side, and one or more denticulations. The next 
tooth is similar, rather larger and directed more outward. The remain- 
ing five or six grow still more oblique, but are otherwise similar in form 
and size, but a little more serrated. 
The median tooth in the lower jaw is broad, with two (or three) strong 
dentations on each side, directed outward, and a very small median cusp 
Proc. Nat. Mus. 80-——23 Dec. 2A, A886. 
