G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 301 



substances, and it can not eat living tissues nor fluids. 12 A, 

 June 27,1872,162. " 



NEW FOSSIL DEER. 



Mr. Boyd Dawkins, in a paper on the fossil deer of the for- 

 est bed of Norfolk and Suffolk, describes a new species under 

 the name of C. verticomis, which has certain characters ally- 

 ing it to the Irish elk, and which it must also have rivaled in 

 size. In this new species the base of the antler is set on the 

 head very obliquely ; immediately above it springs the cy- 

 lindrical brow tyne, which suddenly curves downward and 

 inward ; immediately above the brow tyne the beam is more 

 or less cylindrical, becoming gradually flattened. A third 

 flattening tyne springs on the anterior side of the beam, and 

 immediately above it the broad crown terminated in two or 

 more points. No- tyne is thrown off on the posterior side of 

 the antler, and the sweep is uninterrupted from the antler 

 base to the first point of the crown. 12 A, June 20, 1871, 155. 



CHONDRINE IN THE TISSUES OF TUNICATES. 



According to Dr. Schafer, the tissues of the tunicate mol- 

 lusks contain a substance which in its properties and per- 

 centage of nitrogen corresponds closely to chondrine, usually 

 considered a characteristic attribute to the vertebrata. 5 A, 

 April 20, 1872, 203. 



ALLEGED GIGANTIC PIKE. 



Among the stock curiosities of the literature of fishes may 

 be mentioned the story referred to in " Walton's Complete 

 Angler," that a pike was taken in 1497, in a fish-pond near 

 Heilbronn, in Suabia, Avith a ring fixed in its gills, on which 

 were engraved the w r ords, " I am the fish which Frederick the 

 Second, Governor of the World, put into this pond 5th Octo- 

 ber, 1233 ;" by which it would appear that this fish had then 

 lived 260 years. This fish was said to have been nineteen 

 feet in length, and to have weighed 350 pounds. 



Mr. Frank Buckland remarks that he has at present in his 

 possession a painting of great antiquity which professes to 

 be a portrait of the identical fish, and bearing an inscription 

 corresponding somewhat to that referred to above. The 

 length, however, of the fish represented is four feet nine 



