Bibliographical Nolices. 1 3 7 



We should be glad, did our space permit, to descant on the per- 

 manence of certain kinds of traditionary legends among the fisher- 

 men of our coasts. Mingling comparatively little with other classes 

 of men, pursuing in companionship with each other their laborious 

 and uncertain calling, they transmit to the succeeding generation 

 the heritage of legendary superstition which they have acquired from 

 the past. We lately noticed a plank covered with the barnacle shells 

 (Lepas anati/era) in a living state, cast upon the shore, and upon 

 asking what they were of a hoary fisherman who was expounding 

 their nature to a circle of attentive listeners, we were told that they 

 were the shells that gave birth to the bernacle goose, and with a 

 gracious condescension fitted to our seeming ignorance, he offered 

 to point out the bill and feathers of the future bird. We must own 

 we take a great pleasure in listening to these old stories, and in 

 viewing the simple and industrious race among whom they are cur- 

 rent. To the humble but hardy companions of his dredging labours, 

 Mr. Forbes has not been inattentive. While studying the marine 

 productions which the dredge brought to light, he has not neglected 

 the men, by whose exertions they were procured. And this habit 

 we know has not been suffered to slumber during his recent visit to 

 the ^Egean, for we have seen a letter to a friend, in which he says, 

 " The scenery in many of the islands was very picturesque, the 

 people in all most interesting ; and the inquisitive, speculative, and 

 news-knowing spirit of the old Greek is the same now as in the 

 days when it was caricatured by Aristophanes." 



Our author would seem to be one of those who believe " it is good 

 to be merry and wise," for mirth and wisdom seem at times to dis- 

 pute the possession of his pages, or rather we should say to hold 

 them as joint and friendly occupants. Matters of high interest in 

 the history or ceconomy of the animal are served up to us in so hu- 

 morous a style, that there are pages in the ' History of British Star- 

 fishes ' which we would be half inclined to prescribe as " a cure for 

 the heart-ache." Thus, under the head of Ophiocoma punctata we 

 have the following paragraph : — 



" The stomachs of fishes are often zoological treasuries. The Haddock 

 is a great conchologist. In his travels through the country of the Mermaids, 

 he picks up many curiosities in the shell way. Not a few rare species have 

 been discovered by him ; and the ungrateful zoologist too frequently de- 

 scribes novelties without an allusion to the original discoverer. As Haddocks 

 are not in the habit of writing pamphlets or papers, the fraud remains un- 

 discovered, greatly to the detriment of science : for, had the describer stated 

 to whom he was indebted for his specimen, we could form some idea of its 

 habitat and history, whether littoral or deep sea, — very important points in 

 the ceconomy of Mollusca, — important not only to the malacologist, but also 

 to the geologist. Like the Haddock, the Cod also is a great naturalist ; and 

 he, too, carries his devotion to our dear science so far as occasionally to die 

 for its sake with a new species in his stomach, probably with a view to its 

 being described and figured by some competent authority. The Cod is not 

 so much devoted to the Mollusca as to the Echinodermata; and doubtless 

 his knowledge of the Ophiurte exceeds that of any biped. He has a great 

 taste for that tribe. It was a Cod that communicated the pretty little spe- 

 cies I am about to describe, to my friend Mr. Henry Goodsir, at Anstru- 



