FISHES OF HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
39 
Color in life (field No. 03535), upper parts of body and head light brown, lower parts white; fins 
tipped with black; upper and lower borders of caudal also black. Another example, 4.5 feet long and 
similarly marked, was seen in the market of Honolulu. 
Color in alcohol, pale brown above, the lower portions white; a brown longitudinal band along 
side from below front of first dorsal backward over base of ventral; upper surface of pectorals and 
ventrals brown like the back; upper extremity of dorsal, broadly and abruptly blotched with black; 
margins of caudal narrowly black, the greater part or outer half of the lower lobe black; outer 
portion of anal black; lower tip of pectoral blackish, the upper edge or marginal portion also blackish 
or dusky, and the lower tip of ventrals broadly blackish. Description from a male 31 inches long 
taken at Honolulu. 
This shark is a common form throughout Polynesia. We have a number of examples from 
Honolulu, three of which were collected in 1889 by Dr. Jenkins. The species was also found at 
Samoa by Jordan and Kellogg. It may be known at once by the inky black tips to its fins. 
Carcharias mclanopterus Quoy & Gaimard, Voyage de l'Uranie, Zool., 194, pi. 43, figs. 1 and 2, 1824, Vaigiou Island; 
Gunther, Cat., VIII, 369, 1870 (South Africa; Amboyna); Streets, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 7, 94, 1877 (Christmas and 
Washington islands) ; Snyder, Bull. IT. S. Fish Commission, XXII, 1902 (Jan. 19, 1904), 513 (Honolulu). 
Carcharias (Prionodon) melanopterus, Muller & Henle, Plagiost., 43, pi. 19, fig. 5, 1841 (teeth); Steindachner, Denks. Ak. 
Wiss. Wien, LXX, 1900, 519 (South Seas). 
Carcharias ( Prionace ) melanopterus, Cantor, Cat. Malay. Fish., 400, 1850 (Straits of Malacca); Fowler, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sei. 
Phila. 1901, 325 (Thornton Island). 
f Carcharias ( Prionodon ) henlei Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind., IV, 507, 1853, Batavia. 
? Carcharias ( Prionodon ) brachyrhynchos Bleeker, Enum. Sp. Arch. Ind., 206, 1859, East Indies. 
6. Carcharias phorcys Jordan & Evermann. Plate 2. 
Head 4.8 in length; depth 6.5; width of head 1.75 in its length; depth of head 1.8; snout about 
2.2 in head; interorbital space 2.2; space between tip of snout and front of mouth 2.5; width of 
mouth 2.5; eye 6 in interobital space; internasal space 1.8; least depth of caudal peduncle a little over 
4.8; caudal 3.5 in body; pectoral 5.75. 
Body elongate, rather robust, the tail compressed; head elongate, somewhat narrow and depressed, 
snout long and narrowly pointed when viewed above, the tip rounded; eyes small, their posterior 
margins about midway between tip of snout and first gill-opening; nictitating membrane well devel- 
oped; mouth large, very convex, the anterior margin of mandible below front rim of orbit; teeth in 
upper jaw narrow, with broad basis, not notched, compressed, serrate, and with four or five basal 
cusps behind; teeth in mandible rather long, pointed, not serrate, the edges smooth; nostril without 
flap, inferior, and nearer eye than tip of snout; interorbital space broad and convex; upper profile of 
head rising gradually in a nearly straight line to back of head; gill-opening of moderate length, poste- 
rior, over base of pectoral; peritoneum white or pale; body very finely roughened when stroked for- 
ward; height of first dorsal less than depth of body, its origin a little nearer tip of snout than origin of 
second dorsal; origin of second dorsal nearer origin of first dorsal than tip of caudal; fin small, 
about over anal, so that origins of the 2 fins are opposite; caudal long, with a notch at its tip, deep, 
the lower lobe 2.25 in length of fin; pectoral with margin slightly concave; ventrals small, their origins 
a little nearer base of lower caudal lobe than origin of the pectoral; back convexly ridged, broader 
between the dorsals; base of caudal with a pit above and below. 
Color in alcohol, pale brown, the lower parts pale or whitish with a brown streak the color of the 
back along side from gill-opening to over origin of ventral; tips of dorsals, edge of caudal, and tip of 
pectoral blackish. 
This description from an example 27.5 inches long, field No. 03747, taken at Honolulu. Type, 
No. 50612, U. S. Nat. Mus. We have 4 other examples also from Honolulu, one a foetus, besides 
2 from the same locality collected by Dr. Jenkins in 1889. Specimens were also secured by the 
Albatross in 1902 at Honolulu and at Hanalei Bay, Kauai. 
Carcharias phorcys Jordan A Evermann, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 1902 (April 11, 1903), 163, Honolulu; Snyder, Bull. U. S. 
Fish Comm. 1902 -(Jan. 19, 1904), 513 (Honolulu; Hanalei Bay, Kauai) . 
