368 Zoological N. Y. Zoological Society. [1;19 



Bridge (1904), in The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. 

 VII, on page 454, gives a very general account of the Rhino- 

 dontidae, but adds practically nothing to our knowledge. 



Again in Science under date of May 19, 1905, Dr. Gill sum- 

 marizes some additional data bearing especially on the habits 

 of the Whale Shark which he here calls Rhineodo7i typus. I take 

 occasion here to acknowledge my indebtedness to these two ar- 

 ticles of Dr. Gill and for data which he gave me personally. 



A few weeks after the appearance of Dr. Gill's last note, Mr. 

 Barton A. Bean published his valuable History of the Whale 

 Shark in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. This paper, 

 giving a considerable number of verbatim quotations and being 

 finely illustrated, has been of much help in the preparation of 

 this article.^ 



In his paper Mr. Bean gives careful measurements of the Or- 

 mond, Florida, specimen, which will be reproduced later ; he also 

 gives a careful description of the teeth which will be referred 

 to in the section on mouth and teeth. The skin of this 18-foot 

 specimen was a dark brownish-grey, while the carinations were 

 of a light chocolate color. The spots on the body were compara- 

 tively few, but large, while on the head they were smaller but 

 in much greater numbers. The transverse light-colored bands 

 were absent, strange to say, though probably they had faded 

 out of the dried skin. Underneath the body was light colored. 

 Fig. 127 is the elegant frontispiece to Mr. Bean's paper. 



In the same year (1905) Jordan's Guide to the Study of Fishes 

 appeared. On page 540 of Vol. I there is a paragraph given to 

 the Rhinodontidse, but there is no new data whatever. 



In 1908, Lloyd records the capture of a small specimen at the 

 mouth of the Hooghly River at the head of the Bay of Bengal in 

 261/2 fathoms of water. This fish was 14 feet long, 4 feet wide 

 across the nose and 31/2 feet across the mouth. The girth around 

 the head was 8y2 feet, and around the belly 91/2. Its color was 

 a *'dark bluish grey with large irregular paler blotches." The 

 small teeth were in bands in each jaw, 350 rows of about 10 

 teeth to each row in a band, or about 7,000 in all. 



^To the officials of the Smithsonian Institution I am deeply indebted, 

 not merely for permission to copy the figures in Mr. Bean's paper, but 

 for the use of the blocks themselves. 



