This womb and the womb of the
other sharks exhibit, as you go a little way off from the midriff,
something resembling white breasts, which never make their
appearance unless there be conception.
Dog-fish and skate have a kind of egg-shell, in the which is
found an egg-like liquid. The shape of the egg-shell resembles the
tongue of a bagpipe, and hair-like ducts are attached to the shell.
With the dog-fish which is called by some the 'dappled shark', the
young are born when the shell-formation breaks in pieces and falls
out; with the ray, after it has laid the egg the shell-formation
breaks up and the young move out. The spiny dog-fish has its close
to the midriff above the breast like formations; when the egg
descends, as soon as it gets detached the young is born. The mode of
generation is the same in the case of the fox-shark.
The so-called smooth shark has its eggs in betwixt the wombs
like the dog-fish; these eggs shift into each of the two horns of
the womb and descend, and the young develop with the navel-string
attached to the womb, so that, as the egg-substance gets used up,
the embryo is sustained to all appearance just as in the case of
quadrupeds.
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