34 NEW YORK STATEi MUSEUM 



Mitchill described, in the Medical Repository, 8 :77, an indiyidual 

 measuring 13 feet and 1 inch, which was found, in 1803, on the 

 south side of Long Island. De Kay describes the species but 

 without mentioning any locality of its capture. His figure was- 

 based on a female specimen, about 13 feet long, in the American 

 museum. 



At Woods Hole Mass. the thresher comes in April and remains^ 

 till late in the fall. It is common in Vineyard sound and is 

 found also in Buzzards bay. In the fall the boat fishermen, fish- 

 ing for cod at Gay Head, catch them with lines baited with 

 fresh herring. Individuals 20 feet long have been caught at 

 Menemsha. 



The shark feeds on mackerel, menhaden, herring and other- 

 small fishes. 



Family carcharidae^ 



Band Sharks 



Genus carcharias Rafinesque 



Body moderately elongate; the snout pointed; mouth large^ 

 crescentic; teeth long, narrow, awl-shaped, not serrated, most of 

 them with one or two small basal cusps; spiracles minute, pore- 

 like; no nictitating membrane; gill openings in advance of the 

 pectorals, moderately large; dorsal fins nearly equal, not large, 

 the first well behind the pectorals; caudal well developed, with- 

 out keel, its basal lobe short, a notch near its tip; pectorals 

 short, not reaching to beginning of dorsal; size moderate. 



16 Carcharias littoralis (Mitchill) 

 Samd Shark 



Squalus littoralis Mitchill, Am. Montli. Mag. II, 328, 1818; Le Sueuk, 



Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. I, 224. 

 Carcharias littoralis De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 351, 1842; Joedan & 



EvERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat Mus. 46, 1896; Smith, Bull. U. S. F. O. 



XVII, 89, 1898. 

 Eugomphodus littoralis Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 260, 1864. 

 Odontaspis americanus Gijnthee, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. VIII, 392, 1870. 

 Carcharias americanus Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 27, 



1888. 



Body moderately elongate, its greatest hight contained five 

 to six and one half times in the total length; head moderately 



