ROOM XI.] 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
51 
the gills are laminar. The fish are furnished with large 
pectoral and ventral fins; and the mouth, which is usually 
placed under the end of the muzzle, is armed with teeth. 
The Sharks ( Squalus ) are distinguished by their elon¬ 
gated form, and large, fleshy tail, and by the gill aperture 
being placed on the side of the neck. Many of them are 
viviparous ; others produce eggs inclosed in a hard, horny 
shell. They have been divided into several genera, ac¬ 
cording to the form of the nostrils, the position of the fins, 
and the absence or presence of the aperture behind the 
eyes. Some, as the Cestracions and Spine Sharks, have a 
large bony spine in the front of the dorsal fin. 
The Hammer-headed Shark ( Zygazna) is peculiar for 
the head being flattened, truncated in front, and extended 
horizontally on the sides, so as to resemble a hammer. 
The Sea Angels ( Squatina ) have a depressed body, 
and the mouth placed at the end, and not beneath the 
muzzle. 
The Saw Fishes (. Pristis ) have with the long body of the 
sharks, the branchial opening below, and the muzzle pro¬ 
duced into a long blade armed on the sides with implanted 
bony spines. This instrument, whence they derive their 
name, is so powerful, that they do not fear to attack the 
largest cetaceous animals. 
The Rays ( Raiidce ) are known by their flattened bodies, 
by their large fleshy and expanded pectoral fins, united in 
front to the muzzle, and behind to the ventral fin and the 
spine. The mouth of most of them is armed with tuber¬ 
cular teeth placed in close quincunx order on the maxillee. 
Their eggs have a brown coriaceous shell, of a qua¬ 
drangular form, with the angles prolonged into points. 
The tail of some, as the Rhinobates ( Rhinobatus ) and 
Rhina (Rhino), is thick, like those of the sharks; in 
others, as the true Ray ( Raid ), it is slender, and often 
armed by small spines. In the Sting Ray ( Tri/gon ) it is 
very long and slender, and armed with a long bony spine, 
serrated on both its edges. The teeth and caudal spines of 
these fishes are often found in a fossil state, when the 
former have been called palates. 
The Sea Eagles ( Myliohatis) have a long tail like the 
Sting Rays, but their pectoral fins are very broad, so that 
they in some measure resemble a bird of prey with its 
d 2 
