NICHOLS & MURPHY 
LOXC, ISLAND SHARKS. 
est shark, especially after the i)org\-fishiiig season, or during the latter 
])art of June. It is recorded form Water Island, L. I., in May," and it 
remains in this latitude until very late in the autumn. Mr. A. H. Helme 
informs us of a " whi]^tail," thirteen feet five inches in len.tjth, caught off 
Wading River, in the .Sound, in the .seine of a menhaden .steamer. 
vStrictly a surface swimmer, and readil>- distinguished from all other 
sharks by its long, slender tail, the thresher shark is unique in its feeding 
habits, for it uses its whiplike tail to splash the water, while it swims in 
narrowing circles round a .school of fishes,'^ which are thus kept crowded 
together until the moment of slaughter. Practicall\- ic whiles its pre\ 
into its mouth. Sometimes a pair of threshers work together at this 
highly organized method of fishing. Formerly it was believed that the>' 
killed their i^rey by furious slashes of the flexible tail, but this theory has 
not been well borne out by observation, and it is at least improbable. 
Stories of threshers attacking whales are certainly untrue, the dentition 
of the species being relatively weak. 
Thresher sharks are a great nuisance to fishermen, .sometimes wreck- 
ing pound nets, and regularly destroying incredil)le numbers of herring. 
shad, mackerel, etc. According to Dr. Bean, threshers are caught by 
Gavhead fi.shermen on hooks baited with fresh herring. 
13. vSAND SHARK 
Carcharias taitrus Rafinesque 
Carcharias littoralis, Jordan and Evermann. y 46. 
Carcharias fanriis, Garnian, p. 25 
P'irst (lonsal fin little larger than the second dorsal and sitnated ojjposite the 
sjiace between the pectoral and ventral fins. Teeth long, entire-edged, narrow, 
pointed, mostly with small cusps at base. Color gray, with indi.stinct darker spots, 
the fins more or less black-edged. Length 5 feet. 
378. 
7- 1901. Bean, T. H. Rept. N. Y. Forest, Fish and Game Comm. for 1900, p. 
s. 1904. Bridge. /. c, p. 452. 
