1915] Gudger: The Whale Shark. 363 



"The natives call the species tintoreva, and the most aged of 

 the village had only once before fished such an animal but small- 

 er. While the animal was on board, we saw several Remora 

 about a foot long drop from his mouth ; it was proved that these 

 fish lived fixed to the palate, and one of them was pulled off 

 and kept in the zoological collection of the ship." 



This description was sent by Chierchia to Giinther who, in 

 the same number of Nature, commented most interestingly on 

 Rhineodon. In addition to the occurrences hitherto noted Giin- 

 ther says that in 1878 Professor W. Nation examined a specimen 

 taken at Callao, Peru, and sent a portion of the dental plate to 

 the British Museum. Being unable to run down this reference, 

 I referred it to my friend, Mr. H. M. Lydenberg, Reference Li- 

 brarian of the New York Public Library, who kindly informs 

 me that Nation had his headquarters at Lima and that he was 

 a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London. 

 However, in none of the publications of the Society about this 

 time, nor in the Royal Society Catalogue is there reference to 

 any paper on Rhineodon by Nation.'' 



In Elements of Zoology, by C. F. and J. B. Holder (1884) 

 there is a very crude figure of the Spotted Whale Shark. In 

 fact, it is mottled rather than spotted, is devoid "of keels and 

 cross-bars, and in general is so imperfect that it does not seem 

 necessary to reproduce it here." In the following year (1885) 

 Doctor C. F. Holder published his interesting book. Marvels 

 of Animal Life, in which he gives some data concerning our 

 fish, mainly taken from Wright but in part descriptive of the 

 Ceylon specimen — the latter data communicated to him by Col- 

 onel Nicolas Pike, who had visited Ceylon the previous year. 



^Since writing the above, I have accidentally found (Jan. 2, 1915) 

 that Nation published his account in the South Pacific Times issued at 

 Callao on Jan. 24, 1878. This journal is not to be found in either the 

 Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, or the Library of the 

 British Museum, and as there is not time to get a transcript from Callao, 

 it is impossible to give Nation's description here. 



^'By an interesting coincidence, while reading the third proof of this 

 article, the original drawing of this figure has been received. For it I am 

 indebted to the kindness of Dr. C. H. Townsend who found it in the 

 library of the New York Aquarium. The published reproduction In 

 Holder's book is the first figure I ever saw of the Whale Shark. 



