nXBD-GILLED CHONDROPTERYGIANS. 247 



SCYMNUS* CuV. 



All the chai-acters of the preceding fishes except the doral spines. 

 They also are found on the coast of France. 



The Leiche or Liche, Brouss., called, through a mistake, Sq. 

 americanus-f. 



A species inhabits the Arctic seas which is said to be as 

 ferocious and terrible as the White Shark|, and the Indian 

 Ocean produces another, remarkable for the smallness of its 

 first dorsal §. 



A third, the Sq. ecidlleux, Brouss. ; Sq. squamosuSyhsLcep., I, 



X, 3, under the false name of Sq. liche, is remarkable for the 



small raised and crowded scales resembling leaves, that cover 



its entire skin. Its snout is long and depressed. 



We distinguish those species whose first dorsal is over the ventrals, 



and the second further back. 



One of these is completely covered with small spines, the 

 Squale boucle, Lacep., I, iii, 2; Squalus spinosus, Bl., Schn. 

 A second genus may be formed of the 



Zygcena, Cuv. — Sphyrna, Raf^ 



Which to the characters of the Shark, add a form of head of which 

 there is no other example in the animal kingdom. It is horizontally 

 flattened and truncated before, the sides extending transversely in 

 branches, which give it a resemblance to the head of a hammer; the 

 eyes are placed at the extremity of the branches, and the nostrils on 

 their anterior edge. 



The most common species of the European seas, Sq. zygana^ 

 L. ; Z. malleus, Valenciennes, Mem. Mus., IX, xi, I ; Parra, 32; 

 Salv., 40 ; Will., B., 1, is sometimes twelve feet long )|. 



* Scymnus, the Greek name of a Scyllium, 



•f Because Gmelin has confounded Cape Breton near Bayonne, with another Cape 

 of the same name near Newfoundland. The Sq. niceen, Risso, Ed. I, f. 6, is a bad 

 drawing of the same fish ; in Ed. II, f. 4, it is somewhat better. The Dalatias 

 sparophagus, Raf., Car., XIII, 2, must also belong to this genus. 



X It is the pretended Sq. carcharias, of Gunner, Dronth., II, x and xi, and of 

 Fab., Groen., 127, and perhaps also that of BL, 119, although he gives it an anal, 

 This is probably the place for the Sq. brevipinnis, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. 

 I, 122, which forms the genus Somniosus of that author, who does not, however, 

 describe the teeth. 



§ Leiche Laborde, Q,uoy and Gaym., Zool., Freycin. pi. 44, f. 2. 



II Add the species represented by Bl., 117, known by its nostrils, which are 

 placed much nearer the middle (Z. Blochii, Nob.), Val., Mem. Mus. IX, xi, 2. Its 

 second dorsal is also much nearer the caudal : — the broad-headed species under the 

 name of pantouflier, Lacep., I, vii, 3. It is the pantouflier of Risso Zyg. iudes, Val., 

 Mem. Mus. IX, xii, 1, Koma sorra, Russel, XII, 2 : — The true pantovflier (Sq. tiburo, 

 L., and Val., loc. cit. XII, 2), Marcgr., 181, known by its heart-shaped head. N.B. 

 The tail of Bloch's figure is twisted, whence the error of Schn., p. 131 — Caudee 

 inferiore lobo longiore. 



