V ' Among the Sharks and Whales' 429 



given to blow and kick about in a bumptious and 

 spluttering manner when in society, grinning and 

 showing his teeth like a snob in a drawing-room, 

 that people have fancied him a much more dangerous 

 being than he really is. From my own observation, 

 I think indeed that these boundings and bouncings 

 are the sole foundation for his reputation, such as it 

 is, and that at bottom he is as harmless a cur as any 

 ' ancient swaggerer ' of them all. 



There is yet another thresher to be noticed, but 

 his claims to the title are, I think, even weaker than 

 those of our much-bemixed friend the grampus, and 

 that is the fox or thresher shark. 



Couch, who was a good observer, tells us that it 

 was not uncommon for a thresher of this sort to 

 approach a herd of dolphins (porpoises, I suppose) 

 that may be sporting in unconscious security, and by 

 one flap of his tail put them all to flight like so many 

 hares before the hounds. Yes, but he does not say 

 that he ever saw the fox-shark attack or thresh the 

 dolphins. I suspect that the truth is that his appear- 

 ance scared away the fish on which they were feeding. 



There are dreadful jumbles about these threshers, 

 as there are about all threshers, and it is very hard 

 to get to the root of the matter. Pennant talks of 

 them as ' being taken sometimes in our seas, and 

 deriving their name from their fancy for attacking 

 and beating the grampus [their brother thresher, 

 mind] whenever he rises to breathe, with their long 

 tails,' — those long weak tails, better fitted for brush- 



