38 



PsiTTACUs TiMNEH. Ps. sūturūte cinereus, uropygio, abdomine imo, 

 crisso, et femorihus pallide cinereis, caudd saturate ferrugineo- 

 rubrd, rectricibus singuUs acutis. 



Hab. Timneh country, Sierra Leone. 



Le Perroąuet cendre noir ; Le Vaillant, Hist. Nat. des Perroąuets, 

 pi. 102. 



Mus. Zool. Soc. Lond. 



This bird is confined to that part of Western Africa near Sierra 

 Leone ; it is never seen so low down as Cape Coast, which is the 

 locality of the Psittacus erithacus, from \vhich it differs in its much 

 darker tints of colouring, and the tail-feathers terminating in a point. 



Plyctolophus ciTRiNo-cRiSTATus. PI. ūlbus, cristu citrind, plu- 



mis auricnJaribus sulpliureo leviter iinctis. 

 In vivario, Zool. Soc. Lond. 

 About the size of PI. sulphureus. 



A letter from George Roberts, Esq., of Lyme Regis, \vas com- 

 municated by Mr. Yarrell. lt announced the appearance of large 

 shoals of Sprats off Lyme Regis, from the 14th to the 20th of De- 

 cember lašt. So numerous were these shoals, that at the distance 

 of only fifty yards from the shore, at high \vater, the fishermen 

 dipped the sprats out with tlieir shrimp-nets ; and so great was the 

 quantity taken, that the price at one time was as lo\v as 3rf, per 

 bushel. The oldest fishermen do not remember any such occurrence 

 at Lyme. After a short cessation shoals again made their appear- 

 ance about the 23rd of January, the fish being even more numerous 

 than before, giving fuU employment to about seventy-five fishermen. 



Many of the sprats \vere obsers'ed to be infested with the long 

 slender parasite figured by Mr. Sowerby in bis ' British Miscellany,' 

 plate 68. It is also described by Pennant in the fourth volume of 

 bis 'British Zoology,' page 113, edition 1812, under the name of 

 Lernea spratta. It is the Lerneunema monillaris of M. Milne Ed- 

 wards, ' Hist. Nat. des Crustacės,' tome iii. p. 525, planche 41, fig. 5, 

 and is generally found adhering by its arrow-shaped head to the soft 

 parts about the eye of the fish, or along the line of the abdomen. 

 A specimen and a drawing of the fish and its parasite \vere exhibited 

 in illustration. 



