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The Living Animals of the World 



SHARK (of which a photograph, taken at Mevagissey, is given below), illustrates in its harmless 

 person the fallacy of condemning all sharks as man-eaters, since in this, the largest of its 

 race, we have an absolutely innocuous fish. From its habit of lying at the surface with the 

 large back-fin erect, it is also known as the Sail-fish, while the equally appropriate name of 

 Sun-fish sometimes causes confusion with other British fishes properly so called. 



A commoner British shark (in the limited space allotted, British species must be allowed 

 prior claims) is the BLUE SHARK, small examples of which, weighing 30 or 40 Ibs., the writer 

 has often killed with the rod at Mevagissey. When thus hooked, this fish has a curious and 

 very trying habit of revolving rapidly in the water, scoring its own granulated skin with the 

 line. The PORBEAGLE-SHARK, another Cornish species, is of thicker build than the last, and 

 swims with far less graceful movements. It is a deep brown colour above, and its general 



Photo by S. Dalby Smith] 



[Mevagiiscy. 



BASKING-SHAKK. 

 Regularly hunted on the west coast of Ireland for the sake of the oil obtainable from its liver. Note the keel by the side of the tail. 



outline may be likened to that of a torpedo. The FOX-SHARK, or THRESHER, so , often seen on 

 hot summer days leaping out of water among the pilchard-shoals, is easily recognised, even at 

 considerable distances, by the disproportionately long upper lobe of the tail-fin. This is the 

 shark which attacks certain of the Whale Tribe. Many who stay at home find it agreeable to 

 cast doubt on the story; but the writer has, in Australian seas, witnessed the sight of two 

 of these sharks flinging themselves on the back of an apparently exhausted whale in such 

 unmistakable circumstances that the only alternative (which the reader may accept, if preferred) 

 is to suppose that they were all congenial playmates. 



Before specifying some general characters of this interesting group of predatory fishes, it 

 maybe as well briefly to sumjnarige . the BRITISH DOG-FISHES; for the HAMMERHEAD-SHARK. 

 very common in southern seas, is so rare a visitor to Britain as to be negligible in an 

 epitome of the group. The dog-fishes, then, which trouble fishermen are the SMOOTH HOUND 



