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Wright — On a New Genus of the Family Pandarina. 583. 



L. — OjST a New GE]!Tirs a:n^d Species BELO]sr&iNG to the Famiiy 

 Pandarina. By Edward Peeceval Weight, M. D., F.L. S., Pro- 

 fessor of Botany, Dublin University. (With Plate 35.) 



[Read May 11, 1874.] 



B.HINODON TTPiCFS, Smith, is one of the largest and one of the least 

 known of the sharks. It was originally described by the late Sir A. 

 Smith, from a young specimen about 17 feet long, found near Cape- 

 town. " It was the only one that had been seen at the Cape within 

 the memory of any of the fishermen. At the time it was discovered, 

 it was swimming leisurely near the surface of the water, and with a 

 certain portion of the back above it. When approached, it manifested 

 no great degree of fear, and it was not before a harpoon was lodged in 

 its body that it altered its course and quickened its pace. The pre- 

 pared specimen is deposited in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes 

 of Paris."*^ 



The true habitat of this remarkable species appears to have re- 

 mained unknown until during a visit paid to the Seychelles in 1 867. 

 I found it at home in the waters surrounding these pleasant islands. 

 The size to which this great sluggish fish grows presents many 

 obstacles to obtaining specimens of it. I have heard of some indivi- 

 duals being seen of about 70 feet in length ; I have seen some that I 

 believe to have exceeded 50 feet ; my friend, Mr. Swinburne Ward, 

 the then Civil Commissioner of these islands, measured one that 

 a little exceeded 45 feet in length ; and I have had the opportunity 

 of clis:ecting two specimens, one of which was 18 feet long from the 

 tip of the nose to the end of the caudal fin. Rhinodon typicus, 

 though a large, is a quiet, harmless fish, with a mouth of immensa 

 width, and jaws furnished with very small teeth. I found largo 

 masses of algse in their stomachs, so that at one time I was inclined to 

 think it was an herbivorous shark. Probably, however, it derives its 

 nourishment, in part at least, from minute crustaceans and other 

 oceanic animal forms, which it may take in along with masses of float- 

 ing weed, and then ejecting the water through the strange mesh-like 

 structures that unite the edges of the great gill openings, obtain by so 

 doing enough to swallow. Be this as it may, I found on the surface 

 of these meshes the little parasitic crustacean, which it is the object 

 of this paper to describe. The absence of parasites was remarkable. 

 Some forty or fifty of the new form alone rewarded a very careful 

 search. The sharks had been harpooned in the evening, and brought 

 ashore by sunset (about 6 o'clock). Word was at once sent to me. 

 I was at the time stopping exactly at the opposite side of the island, 



* Ilhistrations of the Zoology of South Africa. By AncheAV Smith, M.D. 

 Pisces, Plate 26. 



