SQUALUS.] PISCES (CARTILAG.) PLAGIOSTOMI. 497 



rals, instead of being cut obliquely, are cut nearly square, their posterior 

 margins meeting at a very obtuse angle ; they are united or separate, 

 according to the sex, in a similar manner : the snout is rather more elon- 

 gated; and, according to some authors, the tail rather shorter, giving 

 the dorsal a more backward position, but this last character I have not 

 noticed myself. (Colours.) Upper parts brownish gray, with very little- 

 of the red tinge observable in the last species: back, flanks, and tail, 

 sparingly marked with large brown spots of a deep brown or black colour : 

 under parts whitish. 



Whether this species be common on our coasts or not, I am ignorant. 

 In many instances it appears to have been confounded with the last. The 

 only specimens I have seen were obtained at Weymouth. According to 

 Blainville, resides amongst rocks. Skin very rough, and said to be of 

 more value in the arts than that of the S. Canicula. In some of its 

 characters it appears to resemble the Catulus maximus of Willughby, to 

 which I have annexed a reference above. 



(36.) Scyllium melanostomum, Bon. Faun. Ital. Fasc. viii. Squalus 

 melastomuSy Blainv. Faun. Franc,, p. 75. 



A drawing of a third British species of this sub-genus, supposed to be 

 the S. melanostomum of the Prince of Musignano, has been recently for- 

 warded to Mr. Yarrell by Mr. Couch of Cornwall. It was taken upon 

 that coast. Not possessing any description of it, and not being able to 

 speak with certainty as to its identity with the above species, I have con- 

 fined myself to giving this notice of its existence in the British seas. The 

 following are the characters given to the S. melanostomum in the '* Fauna 

 Italica." " Sc. rufocinereus ; maculis magnis obscurioribus oblongis ; pinnis 

 ventralibus oblique truncatis ; ore intus nigro-c&ruleo." 



(2. CARCHARIAS, Cuv.) 



186. S. Carcharias, Linn. (White Shark.} Teeth 

 triangular, the sides straight and denticulated ; those in the 

 lower jaw narrower than those above. 



S. Carcharias, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 400. Turt. Brit. Faun. 

 p. 113. Blainv. Faun. Frang. p. 89. Canis Carcharias, Will Hist. 

 Pise. p. 47.? Carcharias vulgaris, Flem. Brit. An. p. 167. White 

 Shark, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 106. Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. 

 p. 139. Low, Faun. Ore. p. 174. Le Requin, Cuv. Reg. An. 

 torn. n. p. 387. 



LENGTH. Twenty-five feet. Cuv. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) "Body very much elongated: skin very hard 

 and granulated : the first dorsal placed before the middle of the back, 

 elevated, rounded above ; the second small, nearly in the middle of the 

 tail: anal nearly opposite to this last: head flattened; snout rounded, 

 pierced with a large number of pores: tail moderate, terminating in 

 a falciform caudal of two lobes, the upper lobe double the lower one : 

 mouth very large, semicircular, entirely beneath: vent nearly in the 

 middle : form of the nostrils unknown : eyes lateral, small, round : jaws 

 large, bent : teeth in five or six rows in both jaws, above and below ; of 

 a triangular form, compressed, finely denticulated at the edges, which 

 are perfectly straight ; the lower ones a little narrower than the upper 

 ones : no temporal orifices : branchial openings five in number, but their 

 form and proportion unknown : pectorals very large, in the form of an 



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