MISCELLANEA. 219 



shark we call the Thresher, from the motion of its long fox- 

 like tail, with which it strikes or threshes its larger and less 

 agile enemy the grampus, whenever it reaches to the surface 

 of the water to breathe. This engagement lasts several 

 hours, as I have been informed by an eye-witness," who, 

 Borlase informs us in a note, was the Rev. Mr. Dyer, vicar of 

 St Clare. 



Pennant had seen a British specimen, but both his figure 

 and description is indifferent. Mr. Charles Stewart tells us, 

 that the fish is " often found in the Scottish seas \" and I do 

 not find an earlier notice of its visiting Scotland, my friend 

 Dr. Wm. Baird having in vain sought for any such fact in the 

 writings of Sir Robert Sibbald. Tliat it visits Ireland occa- 

 sionally, we learn from Mr. W. Thompson. 



Mr. Couch, in his Cornish Fauna, says that the Thrasher is 

 " rarely taken" on the coast of Cornwall. He has given a 

 description of a specimen in Mr. Yarrell's work on British 

 Fishes, which accords with our own. He found the stomach 

 filled with young herrings. He further says, — " It is not un- 

 common for a Thresher to approach a herd of dolphins {Del- 

 phini) that may be sporting in unsuspicious security, and by 

 one splash of its tail on the water, put them all to flight like 

 so many hares before a hound." 



Our fishermen ascribed the scarcity of herring in our bay, 

 for a fortnight previous to the capture of this Shark, to its 

 attacks upon the shoals, by which they were scattered and 

 frightened away. Of such nugatory tales is much of our 

 natural history of fish composed. 



Miscellanea. 



Nov. 10, 1846. — A Quail Yf9^ shot at Letham, near Berwick, 

 by John Pratt, Esq. 



Jan. 14, 1847. — Mr. Lilly told me two anecdotes of the 

 Wea^el^ that illustrate its habits. (1.) Riding along the post 

 road, on a summer afternoon of last year, a rabbit came run- 

 ning up in a very exhausted state, and uttering cries of agony. 

 Mr. Lilly alighted and took up the poor animal, when he 



