12 
NURSE HOUND 
crabs and lobsters; but, like most others of tbis tribe, they 
are ready to seize any tempting prey that comes near them. 
They are therefore often taken with a line; but the capture 
is of little value to the fisherman, as their flesh is too rank 
for even the coarsest stomachs. The liver affords some oil; 
and the skin might be used for polishing wood, but that it is 
too rough to be employed on the finer sorts : I believe a 
species of this family from the Mediterranean is preferred for 
this purpose. 
This fish is not commonly found near the shore; and for 
this cause chiefly it is most frequently met with through the 
summer and autumn, when fishing boats are able to venture 
into the deeper water of the channel, where they are to be 
met with. But there is reason to believe also, that at this season 
they change their ground ; for even when the weather has 
permitted fishing in their summer haunts, and that too with 
what is known to be a favourite bait, they have not been 
caught until the spring is advanced. 
The young are not hatched within the body as is the case 
with the generality of Sharks ; but they are separately enclosed 
in purses, which are of a firm texture like leather, of an oblong 
form, about three inches long, with a raised border, and having 
extended tendrils at the four corners; which become curled up 
when in contact with the water, and so fasten the case to some 
fixed substance, which preserves it from being tossed about by 
the violence of storms, and in some degree serves it in place 
of a nest. They are deposited singly, or no more than two 
or three together, late in the year. But although I have some- 
times found these purses attached to some stalk of flexible coral, 
I have scarcely known an instance where the purse has been 
obtained from the body of the fish; from Avhich the conclusion 
seems to arise, that at that time it does not take a bait. I have 
met with a young one, taken in a net, of less than four inches 
in length, but bearing all the marks of its full-grown parent. 
Although not so formidable with its teeth, as many other 
Sharks, this fish is well able to defend itself from an enemy. 
When seized it throws its body round the arm that holds it, 
and by a contractile and reversed action of its body grates 
over the surface of its enemy with the rugged spines of its skin, 
like a rasp. There are few animals that can bear so severe 
