Miscellaneous. 293 



sent individual*. In the Phil. Trans, for 1774 (p. 464) Mr. Walsh 

 records the occurrence of the Torpedo on the southern coast of En- 

 gland, stating that it had been procured at Torbay, Mount's Bay, 

 and Brixham. This gentleman likewise mentions his having been 

 informed at the village of Ring near Dungarvan, county Waterford 

 (where he was aware that Smith in his History of this county re- 

 corded a Torpedo as having been captured about thirty years before 

 his visit), that one or two of these fish are occasionally taken there 

 in the course of a year. But in regard to species, the author in this 

 communication describes a Torpedo received from Brixham, which is 

 certainly the same as the specimen under consideration. He ob- 

 serves, " the back of it w r as of a dark ash-colour, with somewhat of 

 a purple cast, but not at all mottled f like those of the Atlantic coast 

 of France, nor regularly marked w r ith eyes, as they have been called, 

 like some found in the Mediterranean. Its under part was white, 

 skirted however with the same ash-colour, which towards its tail be- 

 come almost universal. The side fins being a little contracted and 

 curled up, prevented the precise measurement of its breadth, but it 

 appeared to hold the general proportion observed in those of La 

 Rochelle ; that is, the breadth was two-thirds of the length," p. 465. 

 Bloch's figure represents a different fish from the present one. Pen- 

 nant copies Walsh's plate illustrative of the French specimens %. 

 Donovan (vol. iii. pi. 53.) does not inform us whence his figure was 

 taken, but that it was not drawn from a recent individual may be in- 

 ferred from the only original information he gives of the Torpedo as 

 a British species, being — "we can further say upon the best author- 

 ity, that this species has been more than once taken upon the sandy 

 coasts near Tenby, in Pembrokeshire, South Wales." His figure ex- 

 hibits five spots, the spiracles notched, and the tail somewhat longer 

 than that of the specimen before me. Risso's Torp. unimaculata and 

 T. marmorata, fig. 8. and 9. torn. iii. ed. 1826, appear very different 

 from my fish — the former displays spiracles with an even or circular 

 margin ; the latter has them notched. Blainville (Faune Francaise, 

 p. 45.) considers the Torp. narke, T. unimaculata, and T. marmorata, 

 described as distinct species by Risso, to be only varieties of one. 

 Blainville figures the three ; the two last are longer tailed than mine. 



* John Hunter likewise figures the spiracles notched in the largest en- 

 graving of the fish that I have seen, and a female is represented. Tab. 20. 

 It follows Mr. Walsh's in Phil. Trans. 1773. 



f Small dark markings appear scattered over both upper and under side 

 in Mr. Walsh's figures. 



X Pennant describes the spiracles of a Torpedo which came under his ob- 

 servation, as having "six small cutaneous rays on their inner circumfe- 

 rence." 



