380 s(ii:.\UU.. 



snout to tlie pectoral fins, and thick even to the tail, which 

 organ from the root was five feet and a half long, and conse- 

 quently more than half the length of the body ; eye promi- 

 nent, round, hard, four inches from the snout ; iris blue, 

 pupil green : the nostrils small, and not lobed ; mouth five 

 inches wide, shaped like an horse-shoe ; teeth flat, triangular, 

 in two or three rows, not numerous ; spiracles five ; pectoral 

 fins wide at the base, pointed, eighteen inches and a half 

 long. Measured along the curve, from the snout to the first 

 dorsal fin, was two feet five inches, the fin triangular ; from 

 the first dorsal to the second, fourteen inches and a half; this 

 and the anal fin small ; ventral fins also rather small, triangu- 

 lar ; above and below at tho base of the tail a deep depres- 

 sion ; skin smooth ; lateral line central and straight ; breadth 

 of the tail, including both lobes, thirteen inches ; the upper 

 lobe narrow throughout its great length, and on the lower 

 margin, at four inches from the extremity, is a triangular 

 process. Colour of the body and fins dark blue, mottled 

 with white over the belly.'" 



Mr. Couch says it is not uncommon for a Thresher to 

 approach an herd of Dolphins (Delphini) that may be sport- 

 ing in unsuspicious security, and by one splash of its tail on 

 the water put them all to flight like so many hares before a 

 hound. 



" The specimen here described w r as taken at the entrance 

 of the harbour of Looe in Cornwall, in October 1826, hav- 

 ing become entangled in a net set for Salmon. The mouth 

 seemed more feeble than in most of its genus, which 

 is rendered more probable by the circumstances of its cap- 

 ture ; for the Blue Shark (next to be described) w r ould in an 

 instant have cut its way through an obstruction that proved 

 fatal to the Thresher. The stomach was filled with young 

 Herrings." 



