PRISTIOPHORUS CIRRATUS. 245 



Pristiophortjs. 



Pristiophorus Muller & Henle, 1837, Sitzb. Akad. wiss. Berlin, p. 116; Wicgm. arch., 1, p. 399; 

 1838, Charlesworth's mag., 2, p. 89; 1841, Plagios., p. 98. 



Body elongate, tapering to head and tail, flattened in the head and below 

 the tail. Eyes large, in front of the mouth. Pectorals broad, free from the head. 

 Dorsals subequal, hinder angles produced. Ventrals small, margins oblique. 

 Excepting in the five gill openings the characters of the genus are those of the 

 family. The long rostral barbel and its position can be used in determining 

 species from individuals of like sizes; but proportionally the barbel is longer and 

 the snout shorter in the young which brings barbel, nostrils, and mouth nearer to 

 one another and introduces a source of error in comparisons of specimens of 

 different sizes. 



Dorsals and pectorals entirely covered with scales 



42 rows of teeth in the upper j aw .... cirratus (page 245) 

 Dorsals and pectorals nearly covered with scales 



46-58 rows of teeth in the upper jaw . . . japonicus (page 246) 

 Dorsals and pectorals nearly naked 



35-39 rows of teeth in the upper jaws . . . nudipinnis (page 247) 



Pristiophorus cirratus. 



Prislis cirratus Latham, 1794, Trans. Linn. soc. London, 2, p. 281, t. 26, f. 5, t. 27; Schneider, 1801, 



Bloch Ichth., p. 351, pi. 70, f. 2. 

 Squalus anisodon Lacepede, 1802, Poissons, 4, p. 680. 

 Squalus tentaculatus Shaw, 1804, Zool., 5, p. 359; Nat. misc., 15, pi. 630. 

 Pristiophorus cirratus Muller & Henle, 1841, Plagios., p. 98; Dumeril, 1865, Elasm., p. 461; Gunth., 



1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 432; Ogilby, 1888, Cat., p. 13; 1889, Proc. Linn. soc. N. S. W., 



ser. 2, 4, p. 186; Waite, 1899, Mem. Austr. mus., 4, p. 37; 1904, Mem. N. S. Wales nat. club, no. 2, 



p. 9. 



Closely allied to P. japonicus. 



The species of this genus are much alike in general features. In this, as in 

 all the others of the family, the body is elongate subfusiform and tapers from 

 about the middle toward each end. The head is greatly depressed; the rostral 

 lamina is broad at the cranium and tapers forward quite regularly and is armed 

 on each edge by slender compressed very irregular teeth. The irregularity of the 

 rostral teeth is less noticeable in early stages, when first appearing; on large 

 specimens there are from one to four or more small teeth between two of the 

 large. On the jaws the teeth are small, in 42 rows on the upper jaw in specimens 



