'Parental Affection. 381 
underneath, as that of the scate; and he cannot bite of the baite 
before him but by making a halfe turne; and he lielpeth himself witli 
his taile, which serveth him in stead of a rudder; his skinne is rough, 
like to the fish which we call a rough hound, and russet, with reddish, 
spots, saving that under the belly liee is all white : hee is much hated 
of sea-faring men, who have a certaine foolish superstition with them,, 
and say that the ship hath seldome good successe, that is much 
accompanied with them. It is the most ravenous fishe knowne in 
the sea; for he swallowth all that hee findcth.” (. Purchas , vol. iv. 
p. 1330.) 
Mr. Conch says that the notion that the shark, while 
ferocious 'in the extreme to every other living creature, 
yet exhibited great devotion to its young, and watched 
over them with tender solicitude, is derived from the 
Greek poet Oppian, who relates that, wdien danger 
threatens, the parent shark opens her mouth and conceals 
her young ones in the ‘large concave space provided for 
the purpose, much in the same way as the adder is said 
to provide for the safety of its offspring. This statement 
is repeated and confirmed by Rondeletius, a naturalist of 
eminence, whose work on fishes was the chief authority of 
this period {British Fishes, vol. i. p. 32). 
The largest species of shark, and indeed of all true 
fishes, the Basking Shark, or sun-fish, was formerly often 
mistaken for the whale, from its habit of floating quietly 
and peaceably in the sunshine. 
The Hammer-head, or Balance Shark, was only occa¬ 
sionally found:—* 
ic The Italians name them arbalestes, because they have some 
resemblance therewith. Others call them hammers, or mallets, for their 
head resemble that instrument. They are hideous to behold, haveing 
their two eyes in the ends of that their hammered head, their mouth 
in the midst, very great, with three rankes of teeth, large and pointed; 
their tongue as that of a mans, their backe black with four finnes 
and their tayles divided into two parts. Rondolet describeth them, 
and sheweth their figure in his 30 booke, chapter ii.” (Learned Sum¬ 
mary on Du Bartas, p. 213.) 
