HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS 



'I'll 



Carcharias vulpes, Cuv. 



Tlie Thresher. Fox Shark. 



(Plate XXXVI. Fig. 3.) 



Sqitalus vulpes, Gmel., Lin., Syst. Nat. i. pt. 3, p. 1496. 



Long-tailed Shark, Pexx., Brit. Zool., in. p. 110, p!. 14. 

 Squalus vulpes, Fox Shark, Shaw., Gen. Zool., v. p. 333. 



Carcharias " 



it 



it 



or Threslwr, Griffith's, Cuv., x. p. 699. 



Thresher, Mitch., Medical Repository, viii. p. 77. 



Squalus vulpes, Thresher or Long-tailed Shark, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., i. p. 182. 



it 



a 



Sea Fox or Thresher, Jexyxs, Brit. Vert., p. 498. 



C 



Carcharias vulpes, Fox Shark, Storer, Report, p. 182. 



Aloptas vidpes, Sea Fox, Thresher, Sea Ape, Yarrel, Brit. Fishes, 2d edit., n. p. 523, fig. 

 Carcharias " Thresher or Fox Shark, Linsley, Cat. of Fishes of Connecticut. 

 Carcharias vidpes, Thresher Sftark, Dekay, Report, p. 348, pi. 61, fig. 199. 



Alopias vulpes, Storer, Synopsis. 



ilor. All the upper part of the body, together with the fins, a dark bl 



d 



The 



beneath white. Pupils blue-black, edged with golden. 



Description. Surface of the skin rough when hand is passed toward the head 

 depth of the body, at the origin of the dorsal fin, is equal to a little more than one eighth 

 of the length of the fish ; the length of the tail, from its origin to its extremity, is rather 

 more than one half the entire length of the fish ; the distance from the tip of the 



the origin of 



dorsal fin nearly 



fifth the length of the fi 



Length of the 



head, from the tip of the snout to the first branchial aperture, nearly equal to the great- 



depth of the body 

 Occiput slighth 



Eyes situated vertically, very movable 



In 



the specimen now before me, a female, their longest diameter is one seventh the length 

 of the head ; whereas in a male specimen I formerly described, it was about one tenth the 

 length of the head. Snout blunted ; distance from its tip to the mouth two thirds of the 

 length of the head. Gape of mouth moderate ; three rows of very small teeth in each 



jaw, smooth on their ed 



© 



first rows nearly perpendicular, the back 



ed ; teeth in the upper jaw rather 



Nostrils beneath, nearer the mouth 



than the 



Five branchial apertures placed vertically, the posterior the smallest 

 The body of this fish is terminated on the back by a slight ridge; just back of this. w 



a depression between it and the tail, at the origin of which is quite a concavity. 

 The first dorsal fin is triangular, as long as high ; convex anteriorly, rounded above. 

 The second dorsal is a mere finlet, quadrangular, with its posterior superior angle pro 



jecting backwards. 









