172 Mr. W. Thompson's Additions to the Fauna of Ireland. 



Oldham on the 11th of March 1847. It was shown to me on the 

 following morning in Dublin by that gentleman, who subsequently 

 deposited it in the Museum of Trinity College. 



This specimen is 2^- inches in total length, and so fully agrees 

 with that described and figured by Dr. W. B. Clarke in the 2nd 

 volume of Charlesworth's ' Magazine of Natural History ' (1838) as 

 to render any description unnecessary. It having been dried up be- 

 fore being transferred to spirits, a positive enumeration of the rays in 

 the fins is impracticable, but they are in all the fins about the num- 

 ber given by Dr. Clarke : the anal fin however extends considerably 

 farther along the body (for 4|- lines) than represented in his figure, 

 although it there appears as extending to twice the length that it 

 does in Pennant's fish. It commences in the specimen under exami- 

 nation as Dr. Clarke and Mr. Yarrell (B. F. vol. ii. p. 164, 2nd edit.) 

 figure it, in a line with the last gutta of the upper row, but extends 

 as far as the first gutta on the ventral line beyond the vacant space. 

 The guttce in all the series are — what I did not anticipate — precisely in 

 number as in Dr. Clarke's specimen, and even where he remarks that 

 one " appears to have been obliterated " in the row of the smallest 

 guttse extending from the commencement of the anal to that of the 

 caudal fin, it is wanting on both sides of the specimen under exami- 

 tion. See Dr. Clarke's paper, p. 23, and Yarrell, p. 164, for a de- 

 tailed notice of these guttse. Some writers on the Argentine — as 

 Dr. Clarke at p. 23, and Mr. Yarrell at p. 25 of the same volume, in 

 his remarks on that gentleman's communication — seem inclined to 

 believe that among the very few examples of this fish obtained on 

 the British coasts, two species have been taken. The anal fin cer- 

 tainly is very short in Pennant's figure, but the author himself is 

 silent respecting the fin and its number of rays, so that we have 

 only the engraving on which to form a judgment. By making fair 

 allowance for the injury that may have occurred to the very delicate 

 and fragile fins of this species, and for a due want of critical accu- 

 racy in the draughtsman and engraver, there is not in my opinion 

 sufficient reason for believing that the Argentines hitherto noticed 

 as taken in the British seas were of more than one species, nor, 

 judging from Nilsson's description of the specimen taken on the 

 coast of Norway, do I see reason for considering it as distinct. This 

 author refers Pennant's fish to his Scopelus borealis. 



Notes. 



Isinglass Sturgeon, Acipenser huso, Linn. 



A notice of the occurrence of this species on the coast of Cork in 

 July 1845 was communicated co the ■ Annals' (vol. xvi. p. 213) by 

 Mr. John Humphreys of the city of that name. This gentleman — 

 as well as Dr. Harvey of Cork, who subsequently examined the spe- 

 cimen — assures me that it was A. huso as represented in Shaw's 

 ' Zoology,' vol. v. pi. 159. Mr. Humphreys has informed me of the 

 capture of another specimen which was taken in the second week of 

 April 1847 " at Carrigeen, near Curriglass, on the river Bride, not 



