438 PEOSE HAXIETJTICS. 



rallel for his age ; attacking fisli two or three times larger 

 than himself; or if caught^ and placed for observation 

 upon a hoard, resenting handling to the very utmost of 

 his powers, and striking with the tail a finger placed on 

 any part of the hody where it can be reached. But 

 though always hostile to man, and generally so to each 

 other, love for a season subjugates even these savage dis- 

 positions, and makes them objects of reciprocal regard. 



M. Lacepede, who seems to have entered intimately 

 into the private feelings of sharks, speaks thus of their 

 amours : — '^ Radoucis maintenant et cedant ^ des affec- 

 tions bien differentes d'un sentiment destructeur, ils m6- 

 lent sans crainte leurs armes meurtrieres, rapprochent 

 leurs gueules enormes et leurs queues terribles, et, bien 

 loin de se donner la mort, s'exposeront k la recevoir plutot 

 que de se separer ; et ne cessent de defendre avec fureur 

 Tobjet de leur vives jouissances.^ But this devotedness 

 to their females does not last long ; like the heroes of 

 the Ihad, when they have torn each other to pieces for a 

 mistress, and passed the short honeymoon, so characte- 

 ristically described above, the tie is broken, and they 

 become perfect ' Bluebeards in their conduct :' ' B-endu 

 de nouveau &, ses affireux appetits, moins susceptibles en- 

 core de tendresse que le tigre le plus feroce; ne connaissant 

 ni femelle, ni fanulle, ni semblable ; redevenu le depo- 

 pulateur des mers, et veritable image de la tyrannic, il 

 ne vit plus que pour combattre, mettre It mort, et ane- 

 antir.' Members of the same party will even devour one 

 another ; and near the Isle of Cocos, where the sea is 

 much infested with them, if one becomes hooked the 

 others foUow and tear him to pieces, as he is dragged 

 along by the ship's cable. In spite of their ordinary 

 fierceness, however, Plutarch bears testimony to the ten- 

 derness of sharks for their offspring. He says : "■ In 

 paternal fondness, in suavity and amiability of disposition 



