130 ray's bream. 



and the circumstances usually attending it, seem to imply that 

 its more usual resort is in the deeper portions of the sea, where 

 the temperature is colder, or at least more equable, than in 

 shallower water; which circumstance may help to explain how 

 it happens that it has been found within an extensive range 

 of apparently opposite situations. 



An example in the British Museum was brought from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and a large portion of the British specimens 

 were obtained in the north of England, Ireland, and Scotland. 

 Professor Nilsson also speaks of this fish as scarcely rare in 

 the south and west of Sweden, although the instances are of 

 sufficient interest to have secured the mention of the particular 

 dates at which they were obtained, as well as the weather 

 during which they were thrown on the coast, and which, in 

 every instance was severely stormy. Five such occurrences are 

 noticed by him to have taken place in different years between 

 1825 and 1850, and from the 1st. of November to the 15th 

 of December. An instance occurred, within my own knowledge, 

 where a specimen was taken with the hand by a servant girl, 

 who saw it in the water close to the beach, as it was about 

 to die from no obvious cause; and of this example, before we 

 conclude, Ave shall give a particular description, as it remains 

 a question whether it was not in reality a distinct species from 

 the better known Brama Rail. 



Of the more characteristic habits of this fish we know little, 

 and Risso limits his information to the facts of the seasons of 

 its appearance, and that it is valued as food; in which last 

 particular he is supported by Rafinesque, if Cuvier's supposition 

 shall prove correct, when he says that the Lepodus saragus, 

 described by him, is the same as Ray's Bream. 



So deeply impressed on my mind was the opinion of the 

 probability that two specimens which might have been supposed 

 examples of the Brama Rail, were, in reality, of different 

 species, that I ventured to communicate to a local Society 

 of Natural History (of Penzance) a paper on the subject, 

 with figures, and the opinion thus formed has received some 

 support from the observations of two eminent naturalists of 

 Sweden, whose evidence will be produced at some length. 

 In my own paper, here referred to, the example of Ray's 

 Bream is thus described: — The specimen measured twenty-three 



