NICHOLS & MURPHY : LONG ISLAND SHARKS. 7 
2. SMOOTH DOGFISH 
Miistelus canis ( Mitchill) 
Jordan and Evermann, p. 29. 
(,'alror/iiiins /(ri'is, Gartnan, p. 176. 
P'irst dorsal fin decidedly larger than second dorsal, opposite space between 
pectoral and ventral fins. Body slender, flat below. No pit at root of tail. Teeth 
small, blunt, and pavenientlike. Light gray in color, paler below Length 2 to 4 
feet. 
The smooth dogfi.sh is found from Caj^e Cod to Cuba, and also along 
the coast of Europe. Although not gregarious, it is ver\- abundant, and 
in stmimer is quite generally distributed throughotit the salt waters of 
Long Lsland, where we have records of its occtirrence from Jtuie to 
November. During this season, too, the >oung are born ; the\- are about 
a foot long at birth and from four to twelve in ntimber.- 
The smooth dogfish swims near the bottom, to which habitat it is 
adapted b\- being flattened below. The latter characteristic is ,so marked 
that when the fish is placed ujion a level surface out of water there is no 
tendency for it to fall over onto its side. It is a .slender s])ecies, and all 
its lines are sinuous and graceful. Its teeth are small and blunt, 
suggesting the paved teeth of a skate, and its food consists largely of 
shelly, crablike animals, but to some extent of squids, clams, .sand-worms, 
fish (menhaden, scidpins, ])orgies, swellfish, .stickleback, etc.), and even 
eel-grass It shares with man a taste for young lobsters, and doubtless 
the scarcit>' of this delicac>- alone i)revents its forming a considerable ]iart 
of the dogfish's food.- The .stomachs of ten specimens taken in nets at 
the mouth of the inner basin of Cold Si)ring Harbor, L. I., during the 
month of Jul>-, were examined at the Biological Laboratory- and found to 
contain shrim])s, s])ider crabs, hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, and remains of 
teleo.st fishes. 
1907. Field, I. A. Rept. V. S. Bur. Fish. 1906, Doc. 622. 
