DUBLIN NATURAL HUTOAT 80CIBTT. 11? 



adopt and laud Mr. Shaw's theorios, and to promulgate such decbion, to the rast 

 benefit and importance of the national fisheries. These were sounded forth by 

 the Perthshire paper, and the excellent editor of" The Sootsmaiit" in support of 

 Messrs. Shaw, Wilson, Marshall, &c. ; but, lo ! a little time— the ponds glit- 

 tered with silver, the little fish congregated, and an intelligent writer thus com- 

 municates to me the transition: — ** The fry in the Perth ponds are all liberated* 

 they would not stop another year, but threw themselves by scores on the banks, 

 to escape imprisonment. Thus has passed the glory of Shaw and his followers.** 

 And thus, I may say, is confirmed the sagacity of Andrew Young and •* Ephe- 

 mera." Mr. Andrews then exhibited and made remarks on some fresh spad- 

 mens of the parr taken two days since from the Bandou River ; smelts taken 

 from the Laune River, county of Kerry, early in May, and the true salmon-fry, 

 taken in October last. The parr were of good size ; and from inquiries not a 

 single salmon-fry could be obtained this month from the Laune, the Caragh, or 

 the Bandon Rivers ; they had all gone to the sea. Mr. Andrews said that he bad 

 examined many of the smelts, or true salmon-fry, and could never detect the 

 milt or the ova but in a rudimentary state. In the male parr he had found the 

 milt developed in March and April, and also in October. Ue suspected that late 

 in the year the ova in the females might be found much formed. 



JANUARY, 1850. 



ON THE BUBOPEAN HEMIRANPHUS (HBMIRAMPHUS ECROPiBns), AND LB88BB- 

 FORKED BEARD. BT WILLIAM ANDREWS, M.B.LA. 



By the naturalist it cannot but be admitted that the desire of record- 

 ing the addition of any new object to the zoology or to the botany of a 

 country is carried out with a zeal that too frequently leads to the overlooking 

 of the more important inquiries of the affinities and connexions that species, 

 both in zoology and botany, bear to each other. The ardent zeal of such natu- 

 ralists thus influences them to separate, as distinctly specific, any form deviat- 

 ing or varying from characters hitherto described, and thereby not unfre- 

 quently add to the already too much confused nomenclature of classifications. 

 Again : the works of men of acknowledged authority are treated with a defe- 

 rence undoubtedly due to them ; yet, by such admission, descriptions are re- 

 ceived unexamined, when probably in some instances the authorities themselves 

 had not the opportunity of practical investigation that would have enabled them 

 to have avoided the erroneous conclusions they may have drawn. We, conse- 

 quently, sometimes find such records unquestioned and perpetuated. It has ever 

 been my idea that, no matter how limited an opportunity of inquiry the zoology 

 or botany of a country may present, we shall meet a field of sufficient scope to 

 exercise the judgment and penetration of the well-grounded and practical natu- 

 ralist in the reviewing and in the tracing of numerous affinities, that will, no 

 doubt, lead to the framing of a more concise and systematic classification. The 

 subject that I shall notice this evening is the European Hemiramphus(Hemi- 

 ramphus Europaeus). I have not so much the opportunity of clearing away 

 error, as of bemg enabled to speak with certainty of the true character and al- 

 liance of the fish called Hemiramphus Europeeus by Mr. Yarrell, in his ** Sup- 

 plement to the History of British Fishes." It was first described by Mr. Couch, 

 of Polperro, Cornwall, found in the harbour of Polperro, and supposed bv him 

 to be the younp^ of the genus Hemiramphus. In August, 1837. Mr. Edward 

 'Clarke, of Ipswich, found the supposed young of the Hemiramphus in great 

 numbers on the coast of Suffolk, which is fully noticed by .Mr. Yarrell, 

 to whom the communication was made, in the ** Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory" for October, 1837. In that journal, however, and in the •* Supple- 

 ment to the History of British Fishes," Mr. Yarrell gives his views most 

 cautiously, considering the matter with some doubt, as no example of a 



Y 



