718 PLAGIOSTOMATA— SELAOHOIDEI. 



The example figured is from Sir Walter Elliot's collection, and was obtained at Waltair, on tBe Coromandel 

 coast. It is a male 32'5 inches in length. I take this opportunity of dedicating this new fish to Surgeon- 

 General E. Balfour, late of the Madras Medical Service, the scientific founder of the Madras Museum, and who 

 first directed my attention to collecting the fishes of India. 

 Sahitat. — Coromandel coast of India. 



Genus, 3 — Galeoceedo, Muller and Henle. 



Spiracles small. Memhrana nictitans present. Mouth cresceritie. Teeth oblique, serrated on either edge, and 

 with a deep notch on the outer margin. The first dorsal spineless, placed opposite the interspace between the pectoral 

 and ventral fins : camdal with a double notch. A pit on the tail, both above and below, at the base of the eoMdal 

 fin. 



Sharks of this genus are much dreaded in India, the native fishermen distinguishing between those 

 forms with long awl-shaped but smooth-edged teeth, from others having elongated or triangular cusps with 

 serrated edges. The former can be captured by lines and even by nets : but the latter immediately cut through 

 nets and sever lines, rendering it necessary to attach the hooks to chains. Sharks seem to prefer their food a 

 little high, and therefore the natives bury the bait in the ground for a day or more before baiting their 

 hooks with it. 



Oeographical distribution. — Seas of the Tropics, also of temperate and Arctic regions. 



SYNOPSIS OF SPECIES. 



1. Galeocerdo Bayneri. Caudal fin 3J to 4 in the total length. Teeth |4, denticulated, and of equal size 

 in both jaws. With dark spots. Indian and Australian seas. 



2. Galeocerdo tigrinus. Caudal fin 3 to 3|- in the total length. Teeth denticulated, and rather smaller in 

 the lower than in the upper jaw. Red Sea, Indian Ocean to Japan, and beyond. 



1. Galeocerdo Rayneri, Plate CLXXXVII, fig. 3. 



Galeocerdo tigrinus. Gray, Chondrop. p. 64 ; Blyth, J. A. S. of Beng. 1860, p. 36. 



Galeocerdo Bayneri, McDonald and Barron, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 368, pi. xxxii ; Giinther, Catal. viii, 

 p. 377. 



Wulluven sorrah. Tarn. : Kettalam sorrah, Tel. 



Length of preoral portion of the snout much less than the width of the mouth. A groove at the angle 

 of the mouth extending some distance along the side of the maxilla : nostrils nearer the end of the snout than the 

 mouth. GUI-openings not so wide as the orbit. Spiracle small. Eye — rather large. Teeth — 23/23, large, of equal 

 size in both jaws, compressed and serrated in their whole extent in both jaws, as well as notched externally 

 above the base. Fins — pectoral extends to beneath the anterior third of the first dorsal, it is falciform in shape. 

 Origin of first dorsal a short distance behind the base of the pectoral, but nearer to that fin than to the ventral, 

 which latter is midway between the hind edge of the first dorsal and the origin of the anal. Second dorsal 

 above the anal, the two being of about equal size. Length of the caudal 3j to 4 in.the total length, apparently 

 comparatively decreasing in length with age. Colours— davk gray superiorly, becoming dull white beneath ; 

 cheeks and lower surface of the snout yellowish. Body, from a short distance behind the gill-openings, with 

 numerous large black spots and vertical bars. Fins gray, the first dorsal with irregular vertical bands. 



This fish attains to a considerable size in the Indian seas, where it is not very numerous. It is exceed- 

 ingly fierce ; and Jerdon remarks that it is very cunning and swells itself out so as to appear like a floating mass 

 of animal substance, and having thus decoyed its prey it immediately attacks it. It eats everything, even sea- 

 snakes. Sir W. Elliot observes that he obtained an example of this voracious shark 12 ft. 4 in. long. In its 

 stomach were the remains of fish of various sizes and several shin-bones of beef partially digested. Another 

 example, 85 feet long, had the remains of a sea-snake {Ryd/rus nigrocinctus) and of a siluroid fish. A fine 

 pair of jaws of this species (15 inches across the gape), from Kurrachee, exists in the British Museum; it is 

 labelled Garcha/rias fasciatus ?. 



Habitat. — Indian and Australian Seas ; attaining upwards of twelve feet in length. 



3. Galeocerdo tigrinus. 



? Galeus maculatus, Ranzani, Nov. Comm. Ac. Bonom. iv, 1840, p. 68, t. viii. 



Galeocerdo tigrinus, Miill. and Henle, Plagios. p. 59, t. xxiii ; Bleeker, Beng. p. 80 ; Gill, Pro. Ac. Nat. 

 Sc. Phil. 1864, p. 263; Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss. i, p. 393; Ganther, Catal. viii, p. 378; Klunz. Pisch. Both. 

 Meer. 1871, p. 663. 



Galeocerdo maculatus, Poey, Repert, Fis.-nat. Cuba, 1868, p. 453. 



Length of the preoral portion of the snout equal to 1/2 the width of the mouth and slightly less than the 

 distance between the inner angles of the nostrils. A long labial fold along the edge of the upper jaw. Teeth — 

 in lower jaw not so large as those in the upper, denticulated in both jaws, and the denticulations at the base of 

 each cusp also serrated, more especially in the lower jaw. Fins — the first dorsal commences above the angle of 



