HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



175 



eminent service in enabling the fish to effectually 

 shelter itself from undesirable obsei"vation. Its 

 movements are of lightning-like agility. It has been 

 described as the swiftest moving creature in the 

 whole sea ; and in sooth it requires a tremendous 

 nimbleness to have any chance of escape from the 

 onslaughts of its innumerable ferocious and inde- 

 fatigable enemies. In fact, the fish is perpetually 

 encompassed by hordes of murderous enemies ; and 

 of its ever-pending danger it seems to be fully con- 

 scious. The beautiful mackerel, the sea-trout — 

 indeed nearly every big fish is always ready to pounce 

 upon the launce, whether fry or mature, and consume 

 it with immense relish. The light shuttlecock-like 

 terns with unparalleled celerity hawk at and pierce it 

 with their sharp bills. Cormorants, allergansers, &c., 

 mercilessly disentomb it from the tideless sand, and 

 devour it with an unequivocal gusto. The grand 

 and beautiful black-backed gull, sweeping with pre- 

 datory intent nigh the shore, immediately spies it 

 out, and hesitates not to forthwith break his fast. 

 The wallowing, somersault-throwing porpoise, with 

 a huge yawn, engulfs wholesale mouthfuls of these 

 luscious little fish ; and even the renowned Irish pig 

 on some parts of the Irish seaboard resorts to the 

 sands at low water and, allured by the mouth-water- 

 ing qualities of the eel, explores its haunts with a 

 sniffling, grunting snout. Lastly, but perhaps not 

 leastly, even to the highly-organised human palate 

 this fish furnishes a morsel by no means distasteful or 

 unwholesome ; and accordingly by delving in the 

 sand, or by a kind of rake, or by means of a kind of 

 trawling net, men and women cai^ture whole bushels 

 and cartfuls of this excellent article of food ; and 

 again, by using it as a bait, fishermen artificially 

 utilise these savoury qualities, for there are very few 

 fish indeed which can resist the fascination of a 

 dangling piece of sand-eel. 



The skin of the sand-eel is thin, but it is amply 

 furnished at the sides with scales, one margin of 

 which is buried deeply in the derm, while the 

 opposite margin, which presents a net-work structure, 

 projects upwards into the superposed portion of the 

 epiderm. The body and head are elongated ; the 

 dorsal fin (51 rays) extends nearly the whole length 

 of the back ; the anal fin (25 rays) is also long ; the 

 tail fin (15 rays) is distinct and forked, not joined to 

 dorsal and anal as in the true eels (Anguilla) ; there 

 is no ventral fin and the pectorals (13 rays) cover a 

 large gill aperture ; the eyes are small ; the whole 

 fish, which measures 5 to 8 inches long, is of a light- 

 brown sandy hue variegated with a silvery bluish- 

 green tint on the sides and back. 



In addition to those now delineated, there are 

 various other shore-haunting fish, many of which are 

 singularly beautiful and interesting. Some of these 

 congregate in the rock-pools, while others swarm 

 helter-skelter under the shadow of some beetling 

 cliff or surf-skirted sea-wall of rock. For example, 



there is the ballan wrasse {Lahrus maculatits) with 

 its wondrously constructed jaws and teeth, its lavish 

 decoration of scales, and its exceeding versatility in 

 respect to colour, which is sometimes exquisitely 

 beautiful ; the two-spotted goby {Gobiiis Rnthai- 

 sparri) with its daintily beautiful coat mottled with 

 brown and blue, its bright eyes, and active move- 

 ments j the freckled goby {G. minutus) partial to 

 sandy shores, sometimes sheltered under large scallop 

 or other shells ; the worm pipe-fish {Syngnathiis 

 lunihriciformis) with its lengthy snout, its armour of 

 indurated plates, and its limited locomotive powers 

 dependent on its sole fin — the dorsal one ; the 

 father-lasher {Coitus luihalis) with a name suggestive 

 of a ludicrous circumstance in its serial life as yet 

 unverified ; the atherine {Athcri7ia prcslyter) with its 

 beautiful striped body, and astounding fecundity, &c. 



NOTES FROM WEST KERRY. 



Short Sunfisii or Molebut [Ortkagoriscus 

 Mola). 



SOME years since I met with a specimen of this 

 fish, not unfrequently found near the Irish 

 coast. One or two particulars connected with it may 

 be worthy of notice. 



On cutting through a thick tough membrane at- 

 tached to the eyeball and fixed all round to the edge 

 of the orbit, shutting in that cavity, a considerable 

 quantity of clear fluid gushed out ; rather surprised, 

 I removed the eyeball perfect, thereby proving 

 that the escaped fluid had been exterior to it. I 

 subsequently met with a second specimen of the fish, 

 of which both eyes were uninjured. Bearing in 

 mind my former experience, and having provided 

 a graduated measuring-glass and twelve inches of 

 very narrow indiarubber tubing, I perforated the 

 membrane already described as attached to the eye- 

 ball and orbit, and having inserted one end of the 

 tubing through the perforation, I applied suction to 

 the other end, and then curving it downwards to form 

 a siphon, received, freely flowing into the glass, 

 nearly two ounces of a thin transparent fluid, slightly 

 saline to the taste. Shortly afterwards, in the presence 

 of two well-known gentlemen, I repeated this opera- 

 tion on the other orbit of the fish with a like result. 

 The idea of an eyeball moving in a liquid medium 

 seemed to me so strange and novel, that I merely 

 took note of the occurrence, reserving remarks till I 

 could consult authorities on the subject. Some 

 time afterwards I found that the late Mr. William 

 Andrews had published a paper on Orthagoriscus, in 

 which he says, " I have observed as to the very pro- 

 minent form of the eye : in the projecting or very 

 convex cornea, it would seem that it (the animal) was 

 afforded a kind of periscopic vision which is a 

 necessary power to animals whose movements must 



