NICHOLS iS; ^riRFIIV 
LONHi ISLAND SHARKS. 
19 
The shovelhead is a rather small shark, vvidel>- distributed in warm 
seas, common on our south Atlantic coast and said to occur northward to 
Lono; Island, thoui^h we know of no definite records. It is readih' dis- 
tinguished from all our other species b>- the shape of its head. 
Eieht vountr ha\-e l)een taken from the bodv of a full-i2:rown femnle. 
II. HAMMERHEAD SHARK 
Sphyrna zygcFua ( Linne ) 
Jordan and Everniann, p. 45. 
Cestracion zygcrna, Gannan, ]>. 157. 
Resembles the .shovelhead shark, but the head is even more eccentric in form, — 
truly hammer-shaped, s^jreatly produced laterally between the mouth and end of the 
.snout, its front and hind margins almost parallel, and perpendicular to the length- 
wise axis of the body and to the short lateral margin where the eye is situated. Teeth 
small and very oblique. Color gray. Length 15 feet. 
The hammerhead is a cosmojiolitan, .southern shark, not infrequent 
off the coa.st of Long Lsland from Jul>' to October, and most numerous 
during Jul_\' and Augti.st. It probably breeds here, as does the brown 
.shark, for we have .seen the i)hotograi)h of a very .small one found on the 
.shore, and Mr. A. H. Helme rei)orts .seeing dozens of hammerheads about 
two and a half feet long caught in .seines near vShinnecock late in Augu.st. 
Five young have been obtained from the body of a female hammer- 
head. The species reaches a large size, but most of the examples .seen 
in the north are not full-grown. 
Few things in the animal world are more extraordinar\- than the 
appearance of this shark, with its eyes .stuck at the ends of the projections 
of its tuiearthly head. In a large specimen the cro.sstree ma}' measure a 
yard from eye to eye. The famil>- Sphyrnidge contains a progressive 
.series of forms, from those with bonnet-shaped heads to species that are 
even more exaggeratedly hammerheaded then .S". zygtsna. The relation 
of the peculiar configuration to the economy of these fishes is unknown. 
