312 THE BLUE SHARK. 



Sunfish (Squalus maximus, Yarrell) ; Cetorhinus maxi- 

 mus, Gray) ; the Greenland Shark (Segnuus borealis) ; 

 and the Spinous Shark (Eckinorhinus spinosus, Yarrell). 

 A few notes upon these remarkable species, so remarkably 

 named, may prove acceptable to the reader. 



Let us begin with the BLUE SHARK, which visits our 

 coasts in summer and leaves them at the approach of 

 winter being attracted, apparently, by the pilchards and 

 herrings. It is held in great abhorrence by the Cornish 

 fishermen, on account of the injury it does to their nets. 

 Like its congeners, it has a rapacious appetite, and has 

 been known to leap out of the water to seize upon a piece 

 of beef hanging on the quarter of a ship. Our bathers, 

 however, have no cause for alarm, since it seldom ap- 

 proaches very near the land or enters harbours. It pur- 

 sues its prey by sight rather than by scent ; yet it has a 

 strong objection to things malodorous, and our fishermen, 

 declare it can be driven away by pouring bilge -water 

 into the sea in its immediate vicinity. 



The average size of the blue shark, so far as our know- 

 ledge of captures on the southern coast extends, will be 

 six or seven feet ; but Couch says he has heard of speci- 

 mens upwards of fourteen feet in length. Our own im- 

 pression is that those large fish very rarely enter British 

 waters. It is by no means inelegant in aspect : the body 

 is round and slender, tapering towards the tail; the colour 

 of the upper part a bluish-green, or greenish-blue ; that 

 of the under, white. The pectoral fins are large and long ; 

 the ventrals, small. The head is rather large in propor- 

 tion to the body, with a very long and pointed snout. 

 The tail is deeply bilobate. 



