266 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



Common Starling, ° Hoopoe, * 5 House Sparrow, Common Kestrel, Sparrow- 

 Hawk, Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier, Redshank, Greenshank, ° Common 

 Heron, * White Stork, Ruff, *Quail, Kingfisher, (A. ispida,) once, Peewit 

 once seen, Whinchat, Sand Martin, Swallow, Black-tailed Godwit, Common 

 Sandpiper, *~" Green Sandpiper very common, Black-winged Stilt very common, 

 Wigeon, Shoveler very common, Teal, Pintail, Garganey in March and 

 April, Gadwall very common, Ruddy Shieldrake, Pink-footed Goose, Com- 

 mon Snipe and Jack Snipe, and ° Stock Dove. — Extract from a letter to C. 

 R. Bree, Esq., from Captain Irby, 90th. Light Infantry. 



Those marked (*) are found all the year. 



The Bar-tailed Godwit. — On the 7th. of May a very good specimen of 

 the Bar-tailed Godwit was captured on board a fishing-boat in mid-channel 

 between this coast and France. It lived many days and fed freely, but 

 died before I got it. It was in good summer plumage. — Stephen Clogo, 

 Looe, September 7th., 1858. 



Little Bittern. — On the 21st. of May, a beautiful specimen of the 

 Little Bittern was shot on Tudallit Farm, about two miles from this 

 place; it was brought to me for preservation, in excellent condition, but 

 unfortunately at that time I had a large abscess on my thumb, which 

 prevented my setting it up. I sent it to Plymouth, to a taxidermist, 

 who, I believe, has preserved it, but it has not yet been returned to 

 me. — Idem. 



Dusky Se?'ranus. — A fine specimen of the Dusky Serranus, (Serranus 

 gigas, Cuv.,) twenty inches in length and seven in breadth, was purchased 

 on Wednesday last in the Falmouth Fish Market by Dr. Vigurs. It 

 was caught in a ground seine net a short distance from the harbour. 

 This and the one procured some years since by Jonathan Couch, Esq., 

 of Polperro, are the only examples of this very rare fish recorded as 

 British. Description: — Body ovate, thick, solid, compressed, of a dusky 

 greyish colour, and covered with scales and brown patches; head rather 

 short; eyes large, irides yellowish, pupils black; jaws, palatine bones, and 

 vomer furnished with sharp teeth, (elongated teeth among the smaller 

 ones;) lower jaw longest, its under surface covered with small scales; lips 

 large and rather fleshy. Nasal orifices two and large; preoperculum den- 

 ticulated; operculum with three flattened spines behind; dorsal fin single 

 and long; the eleven anterior rays spinous, the seventeen posterior ones 

 flexible; pectoral sub-ovate, eighteen rays; ventral six rays; anal three 

 spinous and eight flexible rays; caudal sixteen rays; branchiostegous rays 

 seven. — W. P. Cocks, Falmouth, September 20th., 1858. 



