11 



SCYLLIUM. 



Generic Characters. — The snout depressed, short, and blunt; nostrils 

 •with a channel extending to the edge of the lip; a temporal orifice 

 behind the eye; an anal fin; the two dorsals not before the ventral 

 fins. The generic name is from Ta 'ExiXXix, the common name em- 

 ployed by Aristotle for these fishes, — perhaps because the prickly 

 covering: of their skin rendered them troublesome to handle. 



NURSE HOUND. 



BOUNCE AND CATFISH. 



Squalus canicula, 

 Catulus major, 



Scyllium catulus, 

 " stellaris, 



Le Squale jRoussette, 



WiLLouGHDY AND IIay; p. 62, but the figure, 

 B 4, does not convey a proper idea of the fish. 



Fleming; British Animals, p. 165. 



Jenyns; Manual, p. 496. {Not of Risso, Icth., 

 p. 31.) 



Yakkell; British Fishes, 2nd. ed., vol. ii., p. 

 493, but the figure is very imperfect as a 

 representation. 



Lacepede; Ed. I'an 6, de la llepublique, 12mo., 

 vol. ii., p. 8; but he coafoundg together this 

 and the Common Rough Hound. The Squalus 

 canicula. No. 112, La Roussette tigree, the 

 Bounce of Bloch, has ocellated spots, and 

 certainly is not the Nurse Houud, probably 

 the Squalus stellaris of Authors. 



This species and the Rough Hound, next to be mentioned 

 are cLassed as ground Sharks, because their usual station is 

 near the bottom, where they seek their prey, mostly in rough 

 and rocky ground. Such of them as wander on more open 

 ground are of a lighter colour, in conformity with a law of 

 nature in fishes, by which they assume an intensity of tint 

 corresponding with the ground which they frequent. Their 

 food for the most part consists of crustaceous animals, as 



