194 



THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



individual of Callorhynchus shares with Chimgera the possession of a peculiar hinged 

 spinous process, which is developed from the centre of the forehead. The true 

 significance of this peculiar organ has never, as yet, been satisfactorily determined. 

 The writer is disposed, however, from an examination of it in living fish, to believe 

 that it is employed during the mating season as a grasping organ. The slender 

 cartilaginous proboscis of the female of Callorhynchus, or the whip-like tail of that of 

 Chimaera, furnish, in either instance, fulchra which can be tenaciously grasped by 

 the organ in question. 



POBT JACKSON SHARK, CeitraritM Philltpt, p. 192. ONE-TENTH NATURAL SIZE. 



W. Samite-Kent, Photo. 



