358 SAW-SNOUTED SHARK. 



and the tail shaped as in other slender-bodied 

 Sharks, with the upper lobe longer or more pro- 

 duced than the lower : the colour of the animal 

 is grey-brown above, paler beneath : the general 

 length of the snout is almost a third of the whole 

 fish, and the number of teeth or processes on each 

 side varies from eighteen to twenty-four. The 

 Saw-Fish is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean 

 and Northern seas, and was known to the ancient 

 writers by the title of Pristis, In the embryo ani- 

 mal the edges of the snout are observed to be nearly 

 smooth, or but slightly undulated by the projection 

 of the incipient teeth qr processes, which are sup- 

 posed to be of very quick growth. 



In the second volume of the Transactions of the 

 Linnaean Society we find a description, by the in^ 

 genious Mr. Latham, of three varieties or differ- 

 ences in the snout of the Saw-Fish or Pristis, 

 which he considers as constituting so many distinct 

 species. In the first of these the teeth are more 

 numerous than in the Pristis Antiquorum or com- 

 mon Sawfish, as well as of a much narrower and 

 sharper shape: their number is thirty-one or thirty- 

 two on each side, those towards the base being 

 situated more distant from each other than those 

 towards the tip. This kind Mr. L. names P. pec- 

 tinatus. In the second the snout is of a more 

 slender form than in the common Swordfish, the 

 teeth shorter, smaller, flat, and sharp-pointed : they 

 are twenty-eight in number on each side : this he 

 names P. cuspidatus. The third has the snout of 

 nearly similar proportions to that of the common 



