46 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



Squalus vulpes, GMELIN,* Syst. Nat., I, 1496, 1788, Mediterranean, (after Pennant). 



Squalus vnlpinus, BONNATERRE,* Tableau Encycl. Icthy., 9, 1788, Mediterranean, (after Pennant). 



Alopecias vulpes, GUNTHER, Cat., vm, 393,1870. 



Alopias vulpes, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 27,1883. 



Alopias macrourus, KAFINESQUE, I. c., 1810, 12, Sicily. 



Squalus alopecias, GEONOW, Cat. Fishes, 7, 1854. 



Family XIV. CARCHARIHXE. 



(THE SAND SHARKS.) 



Body rather elongate, the snout sharp; mouth crescent-shaped, wide ; 

 the teeth large, long, narrow, and subulate, most of them with 1 or 2 

 small cusps at the base, their edges entire ; gill openings rather large, all 

 of them in front of the pectorals; two dorsals, moderate, subequal; the 

 anal similar ; first dorsal well behind pectorals ; caudal well developed, 

 with a short basal lobe and a notch toward its tip ; no caudal keel ; pec- 

 torals rather short ; no nictitating membrane ; spiracles minute, pore-like. 

 A single genus, with 3 recognized species. A number of fossil species be- 

 long to this family. Voracious sharks of moderate size, chiefly inhabiting 

 the Atlantic. (LAMNID^E, part, Giiuther, Cat., vm, 392; genus Odontaapls.) 



31. CARCHARIAS, Rafiuesque. 



Carcharias, RAFINESQUE, f Caratteri di Alcuni Nuovi Generi, 10, 1810 ; in part, the only species 



mentioned, taurus, belongs here. (See note under Carcharhiiittx.) 

 Odontaspis, AOASSIZ, Poissons Fossiles, in, 87, 1836, (ferox). 

 Triglochis, MULLER & HENLE, Mag. Nat. Hist., 1837, n, 88, (ferox). 

 Eugomphodus, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, 260, (Moralis). 



Characters of the genus given above, (Kapxapias, a rough shark.) 



a. Teeth large, awl-shaped, most of them with 1 or 2 small cusps at base. 

 EUGOMPHODUS, (J, true ; yo/u.<os, nail ; oSov's, tooth): 

 b. First and fourth teeth of upper jaw and first tooth of the lower simple, without basal 



CUSpS. LITTORALIS, 64. 



Subgenus EUGOMPHODUS, Gill. 

 64. CARCHARIAS LITTORALIS, (Mitchill). 



(SAND SHARK.) 



Body elongate, its depth the length; head rather pointed, about | of 

 the length ; fins small, the first dorsal not much longer than the second, 



* The general works of Dr. J. F. Gmelin and the Abbe Bounaterre bear the same date, 1788. We 

 do not know which is the earlier, and follow common usage in retaining in this and other cases 

 the name given by Gmelin. Neither writer mentions the other. Gmelin's preface is dated 

 March 16, 1788, while the page devoted by Bonnaterre to the " Privilege du Hoi " bears date of 

 May 16, 1788. Bonnaterre states that there have been thirteen editions of Linnaeus' Systema 

 Naturae. Of these the thirteenth is the work of Gmelin. But there is no evidence that Bonna- 

 terre had seen or used this thirteenth edition, or that the latter had appeared when his own 

 work was published. The two works were nearly simultaneous in appearance, but there- is a 

 slight probability in favor of Gmelin. Gmelin's names have been generally used by subsequent 

 authors, while those of Bonnaterre have heen almost totally ignored. 



f Carcharias, Rafinesque, was established for those sharks, "the most enormous and most vora- 

 cious of their order, which differ from the genus Galeus, Rafinesque, by the lack of spiracles." 

 The group corresponds to the first subgenus under Squalus, in the arrangement of Lacepede. 

 The type of this subgenus is Sqnalus carcharias, which was identified by Itafinesque with Carchar- 

 hinuslamia. Carcliarias lamia should, therefore, have been designated as the type of Carcharias, 

 but Rafineeque failed to BO indicate, and we leave the name with the only species he mentions. 



