558 
Extracts from the Minute-Book of the Linnean Society. 
respecting this and the other characters thus dwelt upon was sub- 
sequently confirmed from an inspection of two living birds, which 
have been since Feb. 1830 in the possession of William Sinclair, 
Esq. of the Falls, near Belfast. 
Observations on the dispositions, habits, &c. of these individuals 
were also added. 3 
The Three-spined Stickleback of the North of Ireland was dwelt 
upon at considerable length, and the differential characters between 
it and the three English species, as described by Mr. Yarrell, (Mag. 
of Nat. Hist. vol. iii.) pointed out. From all of these it was stated 
to be distinct, but seemingly identical with the Gasterosteus brachy- 
centrus of the Hist. Nat. des Poissons of Cuvier and Valenciennes 
(tom. iv. p. 499. pl. 98.), a species there published as new, and men- 
tioned as having been obtained by M. Savigny from the brooks of 
Tuscany. .. 
The discrepancy between Cuvier (Règne Animal, 2nd ed.) and 
. British authors relative to the Gasterosteus pungitius of Linnzeus, 
was next noticed. 
It was remarked of the Gobius niger, from specimens taken in the 
North of Ireland, (on the shores of which country the species has not 
before been recorded as met with,) that the fish so named by Dono- 
van, with which these were identical, is distinct from the G. niger of 
Pennant, and as such ranks as a third species of Gobius to the 
British Fauna, two species only having yet a place in it. 
The Cyclopterus Montagui Don. which stands recorded as having 
been taken only on the southern coast of England, and there but by 
its discoverer, was next noticed, from the circumstance of a spe- 
cimen occurring to the author on the coast of the County of Down 
in December 1833. The difference, consisting chiefly in colour and 
markings, between this fish (which was mature) and Colonel Mon- 
tagus as described in the Wern. Mem. (vol. i. p. 92.), was pointed 
out. ^ 
Specimens of all the species treated of in this paper, with the 
exception of Cygnus Bewickii, were exhibited. 
