254 
PLAGIOSTOMI. 
Courtmasherry harbour, and towed to shore ; it was nearly 30 feet 
long.” 
Dr. Ball, in a lecture on the fishes of Ireland, May, 1839, states, — 
“ As to the propriety of encouraging the pursuit of sun-fish, from my own 
inquiries on the coast of Galway I doubt the policy of doing so ; it cer- 
tainly appears that the capture of one of these enormous fishes, measur- 
ing from 30 to 40 feet in length, would produce some £80 worth of oil, 
but then the appearance of the fish is so uncertain, and the number so few, 
that the taking of one is quite a lottery. I believe the real fact to be that 
the value of the sun-fish taken on the coast of Galway would by no means 
remunerate the number of persons who have engaged at different times in 
the fishery ; while some made money, many more lost time, which may 
have been profitably employed in ordinary fishing. The pursuit of sun-fish, 
if undertaken by gentlemen in their yachts, would add no contemptible 
item to the list of wild sports of the West., Sun-fish are struck with 
harpoons, and afterwards killed with lances ; and the capture, from its 
gamboling, uncertainty, difficulty, and danger, possesses the excitement 
which renders many sports attractive, but which excitement, applied to 
industry, may urge on the current rapidly for a while, but only to divert 
it from its proper channel, to run waste in riot when successful, or stag- 
nate in the pool of despond when the reverse.” 
“ The western coast of Ireland abounds with the Sun-fish or Basking 
Shark.” — H drdiman’s Galway , published 1820. 
The Picked Dog-fish,* Spinax Acanthias, Cuv., 
Is taken around the coast. 
A specimen of this fish, containing young and eggs, was obtained at 
Carrickfergus, on 28th Dec., 1838, and forwarded to Dr. M‘Donnell of 
Belfast, in whose possession I saw it. The following are my notes re- 
specting it : — 
It is 3 feet 4 inches long ; colour of entire upper surface a dull slate 
grey, becoming paler downwards, the under surface white ; on each side 
the ridge of the back are about 6 obscure round white dots (as in the 
foetal specimens, and vide Donovan, pi. 82), but none lower down (as in 
the specimens and figure just named) ; there are a few obscure round 
dusky spots appearing indiscriminately over the body of the fish ; eye 9i 
lines in length, 6 lines high, irides silver, pupil black. 
This fish contained 8 eggs of a roundish oval form, and from 1^- to If 
inches long, and from this size numbers down to a mere speck. 
It contained 9 young in the oviduct, some of them so very slightly ad- 
hering that in a very short time they would have been excluded ; these 
are of similar size, the 9 (the fishermen say the number is always odd) 
being each 9^ inches in length, and are in every respect perfect, except- 
ing that a portion of the egg adheres to each : they are much handsomer 
in colour than their parent, being of a pearl grey above, with a row of 
round white spots, but few in number, on each side the ridge of back, and 
a series of white spots and elongate markings along the lateral line ; 
the pearl grey shades away towards the under surface, which is pure 
white. 
P. dull grey, tipped with white ; 1st D. pearl grey tipped with black, an- 
teriorly hinder portion white from base to tip ; 2nd D. pearl grey, tipped 
* Sometimes called “ Piky Dogs ” in the North. 
