I78 TlMF.HRI. 
one side. In the hammer-heads (Zygaena) , in which 
the head is flat and expanded horizontally, transverse to 
the axis of the body, the teeth are very much finer than 
in the others and generally slightly recurved. 
In all the above members, the teeth form a most 
horrid-looking armature, constantly supplied by addi- 
tional rows, as they drop away or are broken ; and, apart 
from any driving force from the jaw, it js painful if one 
simply lightly rests one's bare hand upon the points of 
the teeth — an experiment that vividly brings to mind the 
peculiar cutting capacity of such jaws when they are 
driven by the enormous muscles that work them. 
The nurse shark (Ginglymostoma) with small mouth 
very small eyes, and buccal cirrhi, seems to be a quite 
harmless ground shark; and though the enormous saw- 
fishes (Pristis)) or comb-fishes as they are locally named, 
present a most terrible sight with their rows of sharp 
and strong spines on the elongated snout, yet in reality 
they seem to be quite harmless, never attacking man, 
though, judging from the fa6l that they at times get 
their snout entangled in the shrimping nets of the coolie 
shrimpers on the mud-flats in the river, they must often 
be in quite close proximity to him. These monsters range 
to quite 25 feet in length in the harbour, and are 
occasionally taken ; but it is remarkable that, in each 
case, when brought ashore, these great fishes show their 
stomach everted through the mouth, and quite empty of 
the food contents which might have guided one to some 
real idea of their habits, and of the uses to which they 
here put their dreadful armature. 
The great rays are represented by eagle-rays (Aeto- 
batis) and blunt-nosed rays (Rhinoptera) of more than 
