Abstract
DURING recent years I have had considerable experience on the oyster-beds and adjacent grounds in the Fal Estuary, and as a result of observations made at various times I consider that the greater part of the Laminarian zone in that estuary forms an extensive and regular breeding ground for the nurse-hound (Scyliorhinus stellaris = Scyllium catulus). In the autumn of 1924 a few egg-cases containing embryos of this shark-like fish were dredged on Laminaria on the Falmouth North Bank, Carclase, and on other grounds in ½ to if 1¾ fathoms. (A chart of the grounds of this region is given in my report on a “Survey of the Fal Oyster Beds,” 1926.) During the summer of 1926, egg-cases have been frequently taken on Laminaria at Turnaware Bar—which is situated about 1½ miles farther up the estuary than the grounds just mentioned—and young ones recently escaped from the egg-case have been seen at low water on this ground on several different occasions. Young nursehounds have also not infrequently been taken in oyster-dredges in autumn.
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ORTON, J. A Breeding Ground of the Nursehound (Scyliorhinus stellaris) in the Fal Estuary. Nature 118, 732 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118732a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118732a0
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