Remarks on the Natural History of Fishes. 339 



They have undoubtedly been mistaken for the Squalus canis or 

 rather Spinax acanthias — picked dog fish. 



Eight pages are appropriated to the Carcharias vulgaris — 

 ivhite shark ; and its history is ilkistrated by a figure from Strack, 

 while its appearance in our waters remains to be proved. 



The Carcharias glaucus—hlue shark — is evidently confound- 

 ed with the sayllium, pumtatum — mackerel shark — ^a common 

 species with us. 



A species of Zygoena is found in our waters ; but as we have 

 no proof given us of its being the vulgaris, our species must be 

 seen and described before it is acknowledged to be that species ; 

 and before we can receive the assertion in the pages before us, 

 that " scarcely a season passes by, in which fine specimens are 

 not taken in the vicinity of Nahant, about the Cape, &c." To be 

 sure, we are told that " but a little time since, a sailor offered one, 

 recently caught, for sale, which he wheeled through the streets of 

 Boston on a barrow, attracting crowds of people who gazed upon 

 it in perfect wonder ;" but it was not the specimen of which we 

 have a figure, surely, which created such surprise in this good 

 city, because this is a copy from a German plate ! 



Of the species here registered as Selache maximus — basking 

 shark — I have not been able to obtain the slightest information, 

 and have no doubt that it is the )Som,niosus brevipifina, (Le 

 Sueur) nurse or sleeper — described from a specimen taken by the 

 fishermen at Marblehead. 



That a species of Torpedo exists on our coast, we have un- 

 doubted authority for believing ; but as no naturalist has as yet 

 seen it, the species remains to be distinguished more definitely. 

 We have here an inaccurate figure of the Torpedo vulgaris 

 copied from Strack to illustrate our fish, when that species has 

 been much more correctly exhibited by Pennant in his " British 

 Zoology.^' 



Strack is again called upon for a plate of the Raia clavata- 

 thornback. The species called thornback in Massachusetts, I 

 have not had a proper opportunity to examine, having never seen 

 more than one specimen, and that previous to my determination 

 to describe our fishes from recent specimens ; if I am not in error, 

 however, it will prove to be the Raia radiata — starry ray. 



A species of Trygon is occasionally seen on our coast ; but its 

 characters have not yet been pointed out, so that it is premature to 



