Fishes. 5529 



colour is altogether different; in the blue shark, as its name implies, it is of deep blue ; 

 in this, it is of a neutral tint inclining to gray, interspersed with red and flesh-colour; 

 the eye is rather larger than in the blue shark, and nostril larger and rather below the 

 level of the eye; the branchial orifices are much nearer the snout, and the pectoral 

 fins are smaller, and also situated more anteriorly than in C. glaucus; the dorsal fin 

 is smaller aud not elongated posteriorly, and is also more anterior than in the blue 

 shark; the tail is larger, stouter, and the posterior and terminal margin of the upper 

 lobe is very much larger and more falcate than in its congener. This was considered 

 both by my father and myself as probably the young of the white shark, and as such I 

 submitted it to Mr. Yarrell, but, in conversation with him, too many differences were 

 discovered to allow of such a supposition to be again entertained, and he then sug- 

 gested its being a variety of the blue shark ; but this, I think, must yield to the addi- 

 tional examination I have been able to give the subject, and I would venture to 

 suggest the idea of its being new. — R. Q. Couch ; Penzance. 



Notice of the Fox or Thrasher Shark in Mount's Bay. — The occurrence of the fox 

 shark (Carcharius vulpes) in Mount's Bay is so rare that a special notice of the fact is 

 worthy of being recorded. This specimen, which is the only one I ever examined, 

 was taken in a pilchard-net in the summer of 1855 : it has, however, been captured in 

 Cornwall on several occasions ; Dr. Borlase mentions one, and another was taken at 

 the entrance of the Looe river in 1826; the capture was effected in a drift-net, in 

 which the specimen had got entangled, in the eager pursuit of the pilchard, on the 

 last day of September. It does not appear to have been a strong fish, for no sooner 

 was it entangled than it became powerless and was easily secured : the rent made in 

 the net was not large, and even that seems to have been caused quite as much by the 

 men trying to lift the fish in as by any other cause. The extreme length of the 

 specimen from snout to tail was 12 feet, of which the tail was 6 feet 3 or 4 inches ; 

 from the snout to the origin of the dorsal fin was 2 feet 5 inches, to the pectoral 1 foot 

 5 inches; the snout was short, sharp and protruded; the eye was about 6 inches 

 from it, and was perpendicularly oval, bright and large, the iris blue, and pupil an 

 opaque green ; the mouth was small, semilunar and apparently very feeble for aggres- 

 sion ; the teeth were long, slender, moveable, and in three rows ; the nostrils small and 

 not lobed ; the branchial orifices were five, and closely anterior to the pectoral fin, 

 which was wide at the base, and about 20 inches long; immediately behind the pec- 

 toral fin was a large scale, forming a deep notch, which acted as a protection to the 

 base of the fin ; the ventral fin was large ; it was a male, and had the large secondary 

 sexual appendages ; the length of the tail, or rather of the upper lobe of it, seemed 

 very remarkable, being longer than the body of the fish ; the general colour was a dull 

 brownish blue, mottled inferiorly with brown ; the abdomen was white, and this last 

 extended from between the pectoral fins to the base of the tail ; the smaller or inferior 

 lobe of the tail is white and mottled with brown, and along the posterior margin ot 

 both lobes runs a thin, membranous and flexible fin ; above and below the base of the 

 tail there were deep depressions. This in its appearance seems to be one of the 

 feeblest of the sharks, and this idea is fully confirmed by the weakness of the resistance 

 it made when captured. It was observed about ten miles off the shore for several 

 hours before it became entangled : it would frequently rise to the surface and occa- 

 sionally splash with its tail, but would again dive below in pursuit apparently of small 

 fish. In its stomach were eighteen common-sized pilchards, closely packed together. 

 It was rolled up in the net, but both in taking it on board and after it was liberated 

 XV. 2 B 



