PLATE LXXXII. 
SatJALUS Acanthias: pinnis dorsalibus spinosia, corpore tcreti- 
usculo. Linn. Fn. Suec . 295. Mus. Ad, 
Fr. 1. p. 53. lb. Wgoth. 174. Gmtl. Linn. 
Syst.Nat.p. 1500. sp. 1. 
Sau alus Acanthias corpore teretiusculo, dorso biaculeato. 
Bloch. Fisk. Deutschl. 3. p. 74. n. 1. t. 85. 
Galeus Acanthias sive spinax. Rondel. 373. 
Will. Ichth. 56. 
Bail. Pise. p. 21. 
Aiguillat. Brousson. Act. Par. 1780 . 
Picked-back Shark. Penn. Brit. Z«ol. v. 3. p • 100. sp. 40, 
The picked Shark, or Dog-Fish, seldom grows to the length of more 
than three or four feet ; the larger ones usually weighing, at the ut- 
most, about twenty pounds. The prey of this voracious animal consists 
principally of Herrings, Mackrel, and other fish that visit our 
shores in their periodical migrations from the north seas, and which the 
picked Dog-Fish pursues in immense bodies, following close in the rear 
of the shoals. This species is far more abundant in the northern 
than southern parts of Europe : it appears in the Baltic only rarely , 
on the coast of Greenland, Iceland, and the north of Scotland, it 
infests the seas, and shores in swarms. The flesh of this species is 
esteemed more delicate, and palatable, than the rest of the shark 
tribe ; and being taken in the greatest abundance by the Scotch fisher- 
men, constitutes an article of food among the lower orders, who either 
eat it fresh, or cure U for exportation. The Icelanders, as well as the 
Scotch, prepare a vast quantity of this fish by splitting it, and e** 
