The Scott is! i Naturalist. 55 



hanked bis ratship for what he had clone, and then bade him good-bye. While 

 sjoing along I passed many a braw house with beautiful doors and clean thres- 

 holds, but I stopped not at these. Getting to a rather disreputable part of the 

 town, however, I soon found a dilapidated hovel. Here, I said to myself, is just 

 5tich a place as any mouse could wish to live in. I therefore unwrapped my 

 captive, and put it very gently in beyond the door, which I would have shut, 

 at found it had no latch; I managed, however, to close it nearly as well. I 



en crossed to the other side of the street, where I commenced a quarter-deck 

 march, but kept my eye on the door all the time. This I continued for about 

 . ■ [uarter of an hour, and not seeing mousie again I left, thinking and hoping 



it it had at last found a congenial home. 



I am well aware that rats eat mice, and how this one escaped is not for me 

 to say. Neither do I offer any opinion as to the most extraordinary pertinacity 

 e> libited by the mouse to get into the rat's abode. I have told the facts, plain 



1 simple, and now leave the rest to the reader. 



Thomas Edwards, A.L.S., Banff. 



OCCURRENCE OF RARE PISHES AT ABERDEEN. 



THE ANGEL FISH — Rh'uio sqiiat'ma. 



\ fine specimen of this species was brought to land by one of our local 

 vling steamers, on January 20th, 1SS3, and is the first example for the 

 ility. Yarrell says that this fish "is common on the coasts of Kent and 

 S sex, where it is called a Kingston." Parnell, in his " Fishes of the Firth 

 "l Forth," says of it : " On the eastern shores of Scotland it is seldom seen. 

 It has been, however, noticed by Dr. Xeill as occurring occasionally in the 

 Firth of Forth ; and I myself have met with two examples, taken with the 

 hook, in the month of June, from the same quarter. The fishermen have no 

 name for them further than that of Mongrel Shale. " Couch, in his notice of 

 the species, says : " The monk is a common fish on the western parts of the 

 kingdom, but it becomes more rare as we proceed to the north, although it has 

 been taken so far in that direction as the Orkney Islands." He, however, 

 gives no authority for this latter statement. Dr. Francis Day, of Cheltenham, 

 informs me, by letter, that one was cast upon the Banffshire coast in the 

 winter of 1S51. In Low's " Fauna Orcadensis," no notice is taken of this 

 species as occurring in that region, yet Baikie asserts that it occurs there. 



The specimen under notice was a female. The stomach contained fish 

 remains. As an article of food, the angel fish is coarse, and could be eaten 

 only in the absence of anything better. 



THE GREAT-FORKED BEARD — Phycls blcillioides. 



On the 23rd, 24th, and 28th of February last, four of the above, three females 

 and one male, were brought into port by some of our local trawlers. Each of 

 the females was carrying spawn, which was about half-way towards maturity. 

 Unfortunately all their stomachs were empty, thus affording no clue as to what 

 their food consists of. According to Jewyns and Yarrell, this species was first 

 described as British by the late Mr. Iago, on the Cornish coast, where it is not 

 common, and it is there called the Hak/s Dame. It is recorded as having 



