NOTES ON PHILIPPINE SHARKS, I 



By Albert W. C. T. Herre 



Chief, Division of Fisheries, Bureau of Science. Mamta 



Throughout the ages sharks have been of well-nigh universal 

 interest. Without the gorgeous colors or flowerlike brilliancy 

 of some fishes or the superb symmetry and grace of others, 

 they yet irresistibly attract attention. Though as a rule of a 

 dull uniform gray or bluish cast and without beauty of form, 

 by their size, speed, greediness, and ferocity they have aroused 

 curiosity from earliest times. Though a few sharks are notable 

 for singularity of shape, it is their more degenerate and less- 

 active kindred, the skates and rays, that have developed the 

 strangest forms and the most uncanny powers. 



Although some sharks attain a length of only a few inches, even 

 when fully matured, as a whole they are of large size, and 

 certain sharks and rays are the largest of all fishes. Many 

 species of sharks are very ferocious when hungry and do 

 not hesitate to attack any other animal in the water, regardless 

 of its size. Sharks are no worse in this regard than many 

 other fishes, as any very large carnivorous fish may be dangerous 

 to man. Barracuda and the giant sea basses of the East Indies 

 and Polynesia are more dreaded in some localities than are 

 sharks. No shark is more ferocious or dangerous to man than 

 are the small and apparently insignificant caribe fish of the 

 South American rainy tropics. 



The sharks and their allies represent an entirely distinct and 

 divergent line from that of the bony fishes. They have no air 

 bladder, no true scales, and no membrane bones, the operculum 

 being always absent in the living species, while the skeleton not 

 only presents a number of peculiarities but also is much less 

 specialized both in form and in material, always remaining 

 more or less cartilaginous. The shoulder girdle is not fastened 

 to the skull but to one of the vertebrae some distance behind it, 

 so that there is a neck similar to that in higher animals. The 

 males of all living species have attached to the ventral fins a 

 pair of claspers or copulatory organs. These serve as a penis 



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