PLATE LV. 
The Lesser Spotted Shark is of the number of those voracious 
creatures that haunt our coasts in plenty, and prove injurious to our 
fisheries. They are often captured by the fishermen in the net when 
trawling for fiat fish. 
The largest specimen of this kind we have taken is two feet five 
inches in length; and they very rarely exceed that measurement. 
There is another species that approaches very nearly to this that 
grows to about twice that size. This is Squalus Canicula, a fish so 
nearly resembling the present both in the form of the body, the 
colours and spots, as scarcely to be distinguished from it, except 
by the ventral fins, which are always found unconnected with 
each other, while in Squalus Catulus they are as invariably united. 
Gmelin is in doubt whether Squalus Catulus may not be the male of 
Squalus Canicula. 
Both kinds are found in all the European seas ; and it is also said in 
those of India. 
