PRISTITJEUS. 
This genns differs from Seyllimn in having a more lengthened snout, 
nostrils unconnected with the mouth, and by a row of larger reclin- 
ing spines or scales arranged like a saw along the upper edge of the 
taiJ_; which latter organ proceeds in a right line with the body, 
as m bcylhum. The generic name refers to the saw-like structure of 
the ridge of the tail. 
BLACK-MOUTHED DOGFISH. 
EYED DOGFISfi. 
ScyJlmm melanostomum, Taeeeli.’s Br. Pishes, yol. ii., p. 495. 
Fnstmrus mela7iosiomus, Lowe’s Pishes of Madeira, T. 14. 
PruUdams melanostomus, Gbay; Catalogue Br. Mus’, p. 124. 
Ihis fish is widely spread, although it was not recognised 
as a species— at least in Britain— before the publication of Mr. 
Itarrells History of British Fishes; which contained the figure 
and description, a specimen of which, a larger likeness, is given 
in this volume. It has since been found by Mr. Lowe, in 
the Island of Madeira; and it now appears that it is scarcely 
rare in some parts of the north of our island; where, how- 
ever, before the publication of an authentic likeness, it had 
been supposed the same with our Nurse Hound: the last- 
named species being therefore unknown on that coast. 
Ihe Black-mouthcd or Eyed Dogfish is better known in the 
Mediterranean than with us. It is mentioned by Risso and 
Rafinesque, but without adding much to our knowledge of its 
habits. Ihe latter says that the blackness of the inside of its 
mouth had caused it to have the name — in Italian, of Bocca 
d Inferno, or hell’s mouth. Its haunts appear to he near the 
ground, and both the examples I have met with were caught 
with the line. It also resembles its nearest affinities the Snjllia, 
in depositing egg-cases in which the young are hatched; but 
