160 



THE OSPREY. 



of Wilson for the Cardinal (irosbeak. The 

 daily and weekly papers and monthlies of the 

 country occasionall_v record the death or exis- 

 tence of a bird that has lived a long time, but 

 no one has collected such observations or verified 

 them. The neglect being thus signalized, and 

 a starting jxnnt given, we await data. We 

 invite, and will be thankful for, authenticated 

 records of longevity or ascertained ages of any 

 birds. 



A few words may be acceptable respecting 

 the pike mentioned by Mr. Gurney. If the case 

 were well authenticated, Valenciennes justly 

 conditioned, it would be very important as a 

 positive datum in the "curious question of the 

 longevity of animals, and especially that of 

 fishes". Valenciennes, however, after a judi- 

 cial analysis of various accounts, discredits the 

 occurrence (Hist. Nat. Poissons, 18, 305-31.^). 

 The fish, said to be 19 feet long, it was claimed 

 had been taken in 14'»7, and was found with a 

 copper ring attached to the gill indicating that 

 it had been put in the pond in 1230 — 267 years 

 before. The .skeleton, said to be preserved at 

 Mannheim, was evidently fraudulently made up, 

 as it had many more vertebriC than it should 

 have had. 



There are few exact data respecting the age 

 of fishes, but it is well ascertained that tlie 



range is very great, and may be independent 

 of size. For example, in the same family, there 

 may be fishes which live indefinitely, and others 

 whose cycle of existence is completed within a 

 year. Two of these "annual fishes" occur in 

 ]5ritish water.s — the Aphya minuta and Crystal- 

 logohiiis A'illssoni. These become periodically 

 extinct, existing for a season only in the condi- 

 tion of eggs. Others of the family, as the 

 common rock or black Goby — Cohius nigcr — may 

 live for many years. 



The number of eggs or young in fishes is de- 

 termined by other factors than in mammals and 

 birds. There is an imperfect correlation be- 

 tween the number and the dangers to which tbey 

 are subjected. Thus, some fishes which take no 

 care of their issue and whose ova may be posited 

 so that many fail to be impregnated, develop 

 them by millions; those which take care of their 

 ova have much fewer, viviparous fishes have 

 still fewer offspring, and one group of selach- 

 ians — the Devil fishes— develop a single young 

 which is born of larger size than most other full 

 grown fishes, and consequently is exposed to few 

 dangers. There is also a difference in that the 

 ova vary in number with the size of the mother, 

 a large Codfish, for instance, having many 

 more than a small one. 



For the Future. 



Numerous articles, notes, illustrations, lettei's, divide the article of Mr. Gurney and the com- 



and book reviews are on hand, and .some are in ments on it, but to publish them together in the 



type, but their publication must be deferred to one and the same number, 

 the future. It has been thought best not to 



