82 Dr. Bancroft on some Animals of Jamaica. 



to be strictly a nondescript, except quoad Dom, Brown ut supra. Here 

 it is called " Quib," and is seldom met with or eaten ; but I learn that 

 it is esteemed a great luxury at the Havana, where they call it Calamar. 

 It seems to me to be the more interesting as connecting Loligo with La- 

 marck's genus Sepia, having its " nageoire" nearly the whole length of 

 the sac, as in Sepia, but not the opake calcareous bone of the latter ; 

 being furnished with a delicate transparent cartilage in its stead, a sample 

 of which is sent in the box. I kept it in brine for a good while, which 

 has caused it to shrink, and has somewhat altered the shape and size of 

 its fin. I therefore send you a memorandum I drew in pencil of its out- 

 ward form, which is quite correct as to its dimensions, being drawn of 

 the natural size. The salt, and the inky fluid of the animal together, 

 have changed its greyish hue to a purplish one. 



4. A species of Shark, which some of our fishermen call Nurse, and 

 which is said to grow to the length of seven or eight fept. This is the 

 only individual of the kind I have met with. Believing it to differ from 

 every species I could find any description of, and considering it as the 

 link between Cuvier's sub-genera Carcharias and Scyllium, I had made 

 drawings of it, and a statement of its characters, also for our Society. 

 But I gladly avail myself of the present opportunity of sending the spe- 

 cimen to your Zoological Society, as I indulge the hope that Mr. Ben- 

 nett will be induced to bestow his attention on it, and do it a degree of 

 justice which it could not receive from me, with means too so limited as 

 to information. Were the title of Squalus ocellatus not pre-occupied, 

 this might suit it : Squal. Argus may answer in its stead. 



5. A small specimen of Squalus Zygcenn, which I venture to send, 

 because individuals of this size may not readily be found in European 

 Musea ; and because, if Mr. Bennett should have derived his knowledge 

 of the species only from books or from dried specimens, he may per- 

 ceive how very incorrectly its features have been represented, especially 

 as to the shape of its head, which has been always represented at right 

 angles with the body, and the situation of the eyes, always drawn as 

 protruding greatly from the side of the lateral processes. It has, besides, 

 been incorrectly described, e. g. by Gmelin (in Turton's edition of Lin- 

 naeus) and the writer of the article Squalus, in Rees's Cyclopaedia, who have 

 assigned to it temporal orifices, which it has not. I consider that a good 



