134 DITBIIN NATTTEAL HI8T0EY SOCIETY. 



fish's pectoral fins, and, retaining th^iece in its mouth, rise to the top of the 

 water, and there chew and masticate it in the peculiar manner common to most 

 fishes, till he had reduced it into a sufficiently comminuted state to allow it to be 

 swallowed. After a momentary rest, the little glutton would, diving, select 

 another gold-fish, and go through the same round of setting it, and biting a 

 piece out of its fins, making as many as five or six attacks in as many minutes. 

 Having devoured as much of their pectorals as he could, the little epicure next 

 attacked their tails, and so persecuted them that at length the unfortunate gold- 

 fish, unable to preserve their balance, turned over on their backs and died. Our 

 little tyrant then paid similar attentions to the dace, which was about double 

 his own size, and succeeded in stripping its pectoral fin, but the dace, being a 

 hardier fish, bore this rough handling better than the gold-fish. The minnow 

 was also attacked, but proved too active for its tiny foe ; while the gudgeon es- 

 caped uninjured, protected either by his size, or, perhaps, because nis fins are 

 too tough. These details prove, I think, a voraciousness on the part of this fish 

 exceeding all his fresh-water congeners, not even excepting the pike, and opens 

 up the question whether some effort should not be made to exclude him, if pos- 

 sible, from our spawning-ponds — a task, it must be confessed, of some difiiculty, 

 when we consider the myriads of these fishes that are found in almost all our 

 waters ; but, perhaps, by watching the spawning grounds of the gasterosteus in 

 the proper season, much might be done, at least, to lessen their numbers. I may 

 as well mention a singular circumstance with reference to the distribution of 

 this fish. There is a district in the north of Clare, around Feakle, where the fish, 

 as far as I could learn, is utterly unknown, even by name, its place in the streams 

 being taken by the smooth loach (C. barbatula), called there Cailliagh rhua, 

 i.e. red hags, and the gudgeon, which (generally a local fish) here literally 

 swarms in the sandy rivers, even in the subterranean tourmines of Kiltannon. 

 I was told by several persons who knew the pinkeen well, that it did not exist 

 there; and a careful search on my own part, during six weeks' sojourn, failed to 

 discover it ; a fact the more singular as a great part of the district is bog, in 

 the pools of which, in some of the neighbouring counties, the smooth-tailed 

 stickleback is plentiful ; neither could I find the minnow there, though both 

 perch and trout abound ; and in Loughgraney, I was told, bream were found ; 

 but I did not see any myself. In my former notes on this fish, I gave a list of 

 the fishes of the Dodder. To these I may now add the dace (Leuciscus vulga- 

 ris), which has lately been introduced into ponds connected with the river, into 

 which latter they will probably eventually find their way. 



MAY, 1830. 



ON VARIETIES OP THE PLEDRONECTIDiE. BY W.ANDREWS, M.R.I.A. 



He said that although on this evening he had several donations of interest to 

 present to the Society, he would allude but to one or two, as there were papers 

 of much interest to follow. His remarks, therefore, would be brief, as he would 

 take the opportunity, on another evening, of noticing more fully the subject he 

 had proposed to bring forward. The first was a very singular variety of the 

 common sole (Solea vulgaris), presented by Maurice O'Connell, Esq., M.P., one 

 of the directors of the Royal Irish Fisheries Company, and taken when Mr. 

 O'Connell was on board one of the company's boats when trawling off Valentia. 

 The singular character of this sole is, having both sides similar, the left side 

 being equally as dark as the right, and covered with similar rough ciliated 

 scales. Mr. O'Connell had noticed this character of sole taken on long lines off 

 Darrynane, where it was known by the name of rock-sole. It had also a mal- 

 formation of the head, like that described by Mr. Yarrell of a brill. Another do- 

 nation was from James Edward Stopford, Esq., also a Director of the Company, 

 of a very handsome and fine specimen of the britt or brill (Rhombus vulgaris), 

 taken by one of the company's boats off the Blaskets. This fish presented simi- 



