6o REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Genus Cynais Gill. 

 The Dog Sharks. 



Cynais canis (Mitchill). 



Dog Shark. Dog Sherk. Dog Fish. 



Body long, slender, tapering from dorsal fin back. Caudal 

 peduncle a little over half upper caudal lobe. Head rather broad, 

 and snout with rounded profile when viewed from above, also 

 depressed and sharp. Eye elongate, mouth crescent-shaped, 

 small, and with well-developed labial folds. Teeth small, pave- 

 ment-like, many-rowed, flat and smooth, and alike in both jaws. 

 Spiracle small, just behind eye. Embryo without placenta. First 

 dorsal large, close behind pectorals. Second dorsal smaller, 

 though larger than anal. Anal behind front of second dorsal. 

 Caudal a little less than 4}^ in rest of body, and its terminal lobe 

 about % its length. Lower caudal lobe obtuse. Pectoral large, 

 obtuse, reaching first third of dorsal. Ventral about half size of 

 pectoral. Color nearly uniform pale gray, whiter beneath. 

 Length 17 inches. Great Egg Harbor Bay. 



It is said to reach a length of 3 feet and also to sometimes be 

 marked with pale spots. Very abundant during warm weather 

 in the inlets and along the marshes. It is also abundant in the 

 bay at Cape May, according to Mr. H. Walker Hand. Like other 

 sharks this one bites well on fish-bait. They also appear to travel 

 with the red drum, Scicenops occllaUis. Many examples Avere 

 examined from the lower Great Egg Harbor River, which it is 

 said not to enter beyond the purely brackish region of tide- 

 water. Atlantic City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Anglesea and Cape 

 May. Mr. I. N. DeHaven and myself caught many of these fish 

 in the inlet back of Atlantic City one summer, and most all those 

 examined had been feeding on Crustacea. They took fish-bait 

 readily. 



Mustelus canis Baird, 9th An. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, p. 337 

 [353]-— Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 828.— Bean, Bull. U. S. F. 

 Com., VII, 1887, p. 152. 



Gal ens canis Moore, Bull. U. S. F. Com., XII, 1892, p. 358. 



