Zoology.-] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Fishes. 



Plate 34. 



RHINA SQUATINA (Lin. bp:). 



The Angel-fish. 



[Genus RHINA (Klein) = SQUATINA (Dum.). (Sub-kingd. Vertebrata. Class Pisces. 

 Order Chondropterygii. Sub-order Plagiostomata. Fam. Rhinidae.) 



Gen. Char. — Body depressed, wide ; head semicircularly rounded, with the mouth at the 

 anterior end ; pectorals very large, rhombic, fleshy, extended in the plane of the body, with the 

 anterior part of the base extended forward as far as the head, but not united to it ; gill-openings 

 five , wide, situated on the side of the neck in the notch formed by the extension of the pectorals ; 

 eyes small, covered over with the skin of the body, except a small elliptical slit for the pupil, 

 on the upper side of head ; with the spiracles larger, wide, situated behind the eyes, while the 

 nostrils are nearly in the same line on the front edge of the mouth, having some lobed, skinny 

 appendages over each ; teeth conical, pointed, small, triangular, without denticles, moderately 

 notched at base with a downward lobe in the middle, no middle tooth above or below, rather 

 distant, similar in the two jaws ; tail rounded at base, keeled on the sides near the end, which 

 runs into the lower instead of the upper end of the tail ; two small separated dorsal fins on the 

 tail ; no anal fin ; lower lobe of the caudal fin longer than the upper ; ventral fins large, fleshy, 

 and extended laterally like the pectorals ; males with small claspers, surface of the skin rough, 

 with minute, conical points directed backwards.] 



Description. — As there is only one species, the form is indicated in the generic 

 character. Color: above sandy-brownish lilac, the ground color being darker, 

 minutely mottled with very numerous, small, lighter spots, the spots on the fins 

 and eyes being darker; pinkish- white below. Dimensions: usually under 4 feet 

 long j length of figured specimen, 3 feet 8ijr inches ; width across the pectorals, 2 

 feet; width across the ventrals, 1 foot 3 inches ; from tip of snout to first dorsal, 2 

 feet 5 inches ; length of first dorsal, 1 inch 6 lines ; height of ditto, 3 inches 6 lines ; 

 space between the dorsals, 3 inches ; length of base of second dorsal, 1 inch 9 lines ; 

 height of ditto, 3 inches; length and width of large teeth, 2 lines; width of mouth, 

 4 inches 2 lines ; length of eye, 6 lines ; distance from nostril at anterior edge of 

 snout, 1 inch 5 lines ; distance between eye and spiracle, 9 lines. The small 

 tubercular spines are a little larger on the back than on the sides, and in some 

 specimens there is an indistinct median line of still larger ones extending a variable 

 distance from the first dorsal fin towards the head, and usually a few spines in front 

 of and behind the eyes are larger than the others. Number of lobes to the fringed 

 skinny flaps near the nostril varying in each individual. 



Reference. — Squalus squatina (Lin.), Syst. Nat., 12 ed., p. 398; Shaw, Nat. 

 Miscel., t. 906. 



If sailors be good judges of the matter, this fish must be very- 

 like an angel, for the Italian fishermen call it " Angelo," the French 

 " Squale ange," and the English-speaking seamen in Britain and 

 America call it commonly " Angel-fish " or " Angel-shark." If the 

 likeness exists at all, it must be quite as strong in our Victorian 

 specimens, of which I have had five or six preserved for the Museum 

 collection, all caught in Hobson's Bay, and clearly identical with 



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