G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 207 



ties as those of the Beadle, the Erebus and Terror, the Sul- 

 phur, the Samarang, the Herald and Plover, the arctic expe- 

 ditions, etc., which, however, according to Dr. Gtinther, have 

 of late found no imitators. At the present time the British 

 Museum depends for its additions in the department of zo- 

 ology especially upon purchases made from private parties 

 with funds granted annually by Parliament, while other na- 

 tional establishments rely mainly upon the efforts of collect- 

 ors officially attached to government vessels, who bring in 

 copious material, and of much greater novelty and scientific 

 interest. 19 A, March 18, 256. 



CONFUSION OF NAMES OF FISHES. 



A writer in Land and Water expresses great astonishment 

 at reading of the capture of a horse-mackerel near Newport, 

 Rhode Island, weighing five hundred pounds, and remarks 

 that he has never seen a fish of this species in England weigh- 

 ing more than six pounds. We have here another instance 

 of the confusion arising from the paucity of English names 

 for objects of natural history, to which we have already re- 

 ferred. The fish in question was unquestionably the same as 

 that called the tunny in Europe, a species attaining an enor- 

 mous size, sometimes considerably exceeding that just men- 

 tioned. To what is called bluefish in New York, and white- 

 fish on the lower Hudson, is applied, on some parts of the 

 coast of New Jersey, this same name of horse-mackerel, while 

 on other portions of the coast of the same state it goes by the 

 names of skipjack and snap-mackerel, and it is known as tailor 

 in Maryland and on the Southern coast. 2 A, Aug. 6, 1870, 88. 



SPAWNING OF HERRING. 



According to a writer in Land and Water, the female her- 

 ring discharges her spawn in midwater simultaneously with 

 the emission of milt by the males, and the fertilized eggs 

 sink immediately to the bottom, where they adhere closely 

 to any object with which they come in contact, in conse- 

 quence of a mucus which envelops each globule. Fishermen 

 maintain that when a larsfe school of herring: are eno-ao-ed in 

 this operation the water of the sea becomes whitened by the 

 milt, sometimes recognizable over a large area ; and it is 

 said to be necessary to wash the nets thoroughly and with 



