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



and containing large masses of vegetable matter, which in the micro- 

 scope seemed to be chiefly Ceramium rubrum and Rhodomela subfusca 

 deprived of their parenchyma, but their walls remaining entire and 

 transparent. In the lower part of the intestine was the operculum 

 apparently of a whelk (Buccinum undatum), with the firm muscular 

 white part of the animal firmly attached to it and unaffected by the 

 digestive process, showing probably that vegetable food is that na- 

 tural to the fish. The specimen was a male, the milt very solid ; 

 presenting no appearance of spermatozoa when broken down and 

 magnified." 



Mr. Couch says of this species that — " it takes the common baits 

 which fishermen employ for other fish, but feeds much on marine 

 vegetables, upon which it becomes exceedingly fat," Yarr. B. F. vol. i. 

 p. 131. This single specimen, as will be seen from the preceding 

 notes, attests the correctness of the remarks respecting both bait 

 and food. 



All the British localities for this species named in the work just 

 cited are on the extreme southern line of the English coast. 



Sword-fish, Xiphias gladius, Linn. ? 



Mr. R. Ball has supplied me with an extract from a book in which 

 donations to the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, were entered. 

 It announces the receipt of the " Sword-bone of the Monoceros or 

 Sword-fish, together with the socket of the eye and remains of an 

 animal taken out of its maw. This fish was taken in a net on the 

 coast of Wexford, but is very seldom known to visit that coast. 

 Presented by Mr. Carey (Carew ?), 1786? " 



Mr. Ball is of opinion that this note applies to the weapon, &c. of 

 a Xiphias in the museum, and not to the Sea Unicorn, Monodon mo- 

 noceros, Linn., which might also possibly occur on the Irish coast. 

 I have been told, but not with sufficient certainty to announce it, 

 of the occurrence of the Xiphias upon another occasion on the south- 

 ern coast. 



Remora, Echeneis remora, Linn. 



A letter from Mr. R. Ball, dated Dublin, July 29, 1846, informed 

 me that Mr. N. A. Nicholson had that morning brought him a fresh 

 specimen of this fish, which he found adhering to the gills of a large 

 shark, which with the aid of a fisherman he captured at Clontarf, 

 Dublin Bay, on the preceding night : it was observed in shallow 

 water and driven ashore. A second Remora was adherent to the 

 gills at the opposite side, but when disturbed, it made its way in- 

 wards by the branchial orifices, and was not seen again. Mr. Ball 

 afterwards saw the fish on which the Remora was found ; it was a 

 Blue Shark (Carcharias glaucus) of a beautifully blue colour, and 

 10 feet 1 inch in length. 



Lancelet, Amphioxus lanceolatus, Pallas (sp.); Yarr. Brit. Fishes. 



Three specimens of this extraordinary fish with which I have been 

 favoured, were dredged on sand from a depth of forty-five fathoms off 



