252 
PLAGIOSTOMI. 
Mr. Nimmo informed me, that this species is taken both on long-lines 
and in nets on the Galway coast. 
The Common Tope,* * * § Galeus vulgaris, Cuv., 
Is found around the coast. 
Several specimens, from 11 inches to 4^ feet in length, taken on the 
North-East coast, at various seasons of the year, have come under my 
examination, and I have notes of the existence of the species in various 
other localities, North, East, South, and West. 
Mr. Templeton mentions the capture of a specimen 5 feet long, in Bel- 
fast Bay. 
Mr. Yarrell describes the skin of this species as being “ almost smooth,” 
but in a specimen 1 foot in length I found it decidedly rough when I 
applied my hand from the direction of the tail towards the head ; perhaps 
the roughness may be greater in the young than in the old examples. 
The Smooth Hound, Mustelus Icevis, Cuv., 
Is occasionally taken in the North and South. 
The following notes on this species were contributed by me to the 2nd 
Vol. of the Annals Nat. Hist. (p. 272) : — 
“ Mustelus Icevis and Hinnulus I embrace this opportunity of offering a few 
remarks on the identity of the Squalus Mustelus, Linn. ( Mustelus Icevis , Will.), 
and Sq. Hinnulus, Blain.f (Must, stellatus, Risso). As some authors are agreed 
on this subject, it may perhaps be considered unnecessary to treat further of it, 
but I do so in reference to the place S. Hinnulus occupies in Mr. Jenyns’s ex- 
cellent Manual, p. 503. Here a short description is given of a fish taken at 
Weymouth, of which it is said that it ‘ appears to be identical with the S. Hin- 
nulus of Blainville afterwards the remark is made, ‘ that it is a great question 
whether this last be anything more than a variety of S. Mustelus .’ 
“ The following observations are on a specimen taken in Belfast Bay on the 
16th of July last, and received by me before life was extinct. This individual 
combined in colour Mr. Jenyns’s descriptions of S. Icevis and S. Hinnulus, hav- 
ing, as the former is described, the ‘upper parts of a uniform pearl gray,’ and 
being ‘ paler or almost white beneath ; ’ at the same time presenting with the 
S. Hinnulus J ‘ a row of small whitish spots from the eye towards the first of 
the branchial openings ; lateral line indistinctly (?) spotted with white; also a 
moderate number of small scattered white spots between the lateral line and the 
dorsal ridge.’ The lateral line is in my specimen closely spotted with white, of 
a silvery lustre, from its origin to the extremity of the second dorsal fin, where 
this marking terminates ; but a row of similar spots appears throughout the en- 
tire tail, beginning at the origin of the caudal fin on the upper side, and placed 
between its margin and the lateral line ; ‘ a moderate number ’ of white spots, 
as described above this line, as far as the extremity of the second dorsal fin ; 
these are larger than those on the line, and have the same silvery lustre ; the 
short space intervening between the end of the second dorsal and the origin of 
the caudal fin is spotless. No spots on the body below the lateral line, nor on 
any of the fins, which are pearl grey ; the pectorals varied with a whitish tinge 
along the margin, and the first dorsal with a dusky tip. Pupil of the eye black ; 
irides silvery, with iridescent hues ; eye 10 lines in length, § oblong-oval in form. 
* Sometimes called “ Blue Dog-fish.” 
f Faune Fran^aise, p. 83, pi. 20, f. 2. 
% “Brownish-ash” is given as the general colour by Mr. Jenyns; Risso de- 
scribes the M. stellatus to be “ d’un gris de perle en dessus.” 
§ The Squalus Canicula is so different in this respect, as from the smallness 
of its eyes to be commonly called blind dog-fish in the North of Ireland. 
