Miscellaneous. 77 



parent birds guard them ; if a dog by chance comes near them, they 

 will dart and strike him very hard and drive him off the beach. On 

 the 20th of August, being out shooting on Sandwich haven, my at- 

 tention was drawn to a large bird sitting on a post or land-mark 

 close to the mouth of the river. I got within about seventy yards, 

 but did not succeed in bringing it down ; I kept up a close pursuit 

 the rest of the day, but could not get near enough for a second shot. 

 Next morning, when I returned to the Flats, it was brought to me 

 by one of the boys from the Coast-guard station, who had picked it 

 up ; it was a beautiful specimen of the Osprey. It is now in the 

 Margate Museum, as most of the birds named here. On dissecting 

 the bird it was wounded in the neck and had bled to death. 



I am. Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, 

 8 Cecil Street. S. Mummery. 



DESCRIPTION OF TWO GREEN-STREAKED WRASSES (lABRUS LINEATUS, 



Fleming). 

 To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Rooms of the Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, 

 Plymouth, November 7,* 1843. 



Irides and pupil green, with margins of orange. A very distinct 

 velum suspended from the palate, and just within the mouth. Nape 

 a little depressed. Upper jaw the longer. Operculum angular. 

 Teeth large and sharp ; no palatine teeth. Lateral line nearly 

 straight, till near the posterior part of the dorsal fin, where it is de- 

 flected, and then passes direct and horizontally to the middle of the 

 tail. Above, the fish is grass-green ; below the same, with a mix- 

 ture of yellowish tint. In the posterior part of the dorsal fin there 

 is a slight disposition to mottles of brown. 



Pectoral rays, 14; dorsal, 21-|-10; ventral, 1+5; anal, 3 + 8; 

 caudal, 15. Length about 6 inches. 



The specimens, of which the foregoing is some description, were 

 captured by the hook and line, among the rocks in-shore at this 

 port, during the past summer. I have known of previous captures 

 in the same season, and am informed by the taxidermist to this So- 

 ciety, that he has taken as many as six in a day when fishing in our 

 sound with the sea-line used for Chads. An excellent preserved spe- 

 cimen is in this Museum. What is the meaning of the epithet 

 " streaked" and " lineatus," as applied to this species } 



CAPTURE OF A SHORT SUN-FISH (oRTHAGORISCUS MOLa). 



In the course of last summer (in August I believe) some fisher- 

 men, employed at the distance of half a mile from the town, near 

 Mount Batten, were surprised by the appearance near the surface of 

 a bulky visitor of the above species, and one of them at once put out 

 a " galF," to which the creature in its playful movements became 

 almost immediately attached, the hook entering at its belly. It 

 measured four feet from above, downwards, fins included ; and thrett 



