SQUALUS.] PISCES (CARTILAG.) PLAGIOSTOML 495 



ORDER VIII. PLAGIOSTOML 



GEN. 73. SQUALUS, Linn. 



(1. SCYLLIUM, CUV.) 



184. S. Canicula^ Linn. (Spotted Dog-Fish.) Spots 

 small and numerous : ventrals cut obliquely at their pos- 

 terior margin : valves of the nostrils united, partly covering 

 the mouth. 



S. Canicula, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 399. S. Catulus, Block, 

 Ichth. pi. 114. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. in. pi. 55. Blainv. Faun. 

 Franq. p. 69. pi. 17. f. 1. Scylliura Catulus, Flem. Brit. An. p. 165. 

 (Male.) S. stellare, Id. (Fern.) S. Canicula, Bon. Faun. Ital. 

 Fasc. vn. Catulus major vulgaris, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 62. tab. B. 4. 

 f. 1. Catulus minor, Id. p. 64.? Lesser Spotted Dog-Fish, (Male), 

 and Spotted Dog-Fish, (Fern.) Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. pp. 1 15, 

 and 113. pi. 15. Lesser Spotted Shark, (Male,) and Spotted Shark, 

 (Fern.) Id. (Ed. 1812.) vol. in. pp. 150, and 148. pi. 19. La grande 

 Roussette, Cuv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 386. 



LENGTH. From two to three feet ; sometimes three feet and a half, 

 or even more. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Body elongated, tapering from behind the pec- 

 torals, where the thickness is greatest: head blunt, depressed: snout 

 short and rounded : nostrils on the under surface of the snout, near the 

 mouth, large, prolonged in a channel to the margin of the lips, and almost 

 entirely closed by a fleshy valve or lobe of the skin ; each valve unites 

 with its fellow on the opposite side, the two together forming a large flap, 

 emarginated in front, which extends over the upper lip and entirely con- 

 ceals it : mouth beneath, behind the nostrils, of a semicircular form : both 

 jaws with several rows of small, but sharp, teeth, inclining backwards ; 

 each tooth furnished with a long point in the middle, and smaller denti- 

 culations at the sides: eyes large, oblong-oval, at equal distances from 

 each other and the end of the snout ; behind each a small temporal ori- 

 fice, or spiracle, communicating with the mouth : branchial openings at 

 the sides of the neck, five in number, parallel to, and equally distant 

 from, each other, arranged in a longitudinal series, the first as far behind 

 the eyes, as these last are distant from the end of the snout, the last 

 immediately above the pectoral fin ; first four openings nearly of equal 

 size, the fifth smaller : skin somewhat glistening, very rough when the 

 hand is passed from tail to head, but only slightly so in the opposite direc- 

 tion, the roughness proceeding from very minute denticulated scales : no 

 distinct lateral line: two dorsals; both placed very much behind: the 

 first commencing about the middle of the entire length, of a trapezoidal 

 form, cut square behind, its greatest height about equal to the depth 

 of the body, the space which it occupies about two-thirds of the same : 



