66 REPORT — 1853. 



ances luminous to the eye ave evidently from an excited state of the minwte abstract 

 arteries of the retina and brain, and I much suspect that the vivid coruscations of 

 light, said to have been seen issuing from the poles of magnets in the dark, are caused 

 by a like excited state of the minute arteries of the retina and brain. 



On a New Species of Cometes ; a Genus of Humming-Birds. 



By John Gould, F.R.S. 



The author gave an interesting account of the family of humming-birds, and of the 



species which were new in his collection. Of the genus Cometes, to which the new bird 



belonged, two species had already been described, the C.Spargmutrus and C.Phaon, 



and he proposed for the third species the name of C. Mossia, after its discoverer. 



On the Artificial Breeding of Sahnon in the Swale. 

 ^^ John Hogg, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. 



In the latter part of the autumn of 1851, two or three gentlemen of Richmond 

 caught with a net three or four male and female salmon when they were observed to 

 be about to deposit their roe and milt in the gravel-beds which they had made in the 

 river Tees. They expressed into a vessel with fresh water some of the roe from the 

 female salmon, and afterwards did the like with the milt from the males. They 

 returned the fishes to the river. After shaking together the roe and milt, they in a 

 day or two deposited them so mixed in beds in the gravel of a small stream, tributary 

 to the Swale near Richmond, and carefully staked off the ground with thorns and 

 ■whins to prevent the access of small tvouts, minnows, and other fishes, which would 

 have greedily devoured the roe. In the spring of the following year 1852, the gen- 

 tlemen were happy to find that some fry of the salmon had emerged from the roe or 

 ova so artificially fertilized and deposited ; and the experiment, in fact, succeeded. 

 Again, on Christmas Eve of last year, 1852, the same gentlemen obtained from the 

 river Tees some more male and female salmon, and expressed from them respectively 

 some roe and milt. These were conveyed to the Swale, or one of its tributaries near 

 Richmond, and the result was, this spring (.-Vpril 185.3), still more satisfactory, inas- 

 much as many of the ova produced a fine stock of healthy fry. These active gentlemen 

 and practical ichthyologists, to whom the author referred, consider that they have now 

 the means of ensuring a supply of that noble and useful species, the salmon, in the 

 waters of the Swale. That beautiful river, as it is satisfactorily recorded in the Annals 

 of Richmond, had many years ago an annual supply of salmon ; but owing to the 

 erection of a mill-dam some years since between Richmond and the sea, the free access 

 up and down the Swale was prevented, and consequently the salmon took to other 

 rivers. The removal of the dam, at least for a portion of the season, will this year be 

 effected. The author also communicated a similar important fact respecting the arti- 

 ficial breeding of the common trout; as he with pleasure learnt this spring that 

 Major Wade, of Hauxwell Hall in this county, had during the last autumn and the 

 April of this year, been equally successful with the ova and milt taken from female 

 and male trouts. Mr. .J. H ogg then made a few observations on the facility of this me- 

 thod of the artificial propagation of fishes ; and trusted that it only required to be better 

 known to secure a more universal adoption of it, which would stock many of our rivers, 

 lakes and waters throughout the kingdom, and consequently prove a source of wealth 

 to poor persons, and give an abundant supply of delicious and wholesome food to all 

 classes. By the same method the roe and milt might be obtained and conveyed in 

 proper boxes filled with water and some gravel even to distant places, — probably, in 

 time, to many of our colonies in foreign climes, and so be a ready means of exporting 

 as well as of importing different species. 



On some discoveries relative to the Chick in Ovo, and its liberation from the 

 shell. By F. R. Horner, M.D. of Hull. 



The author observed, that the chick in ovo had ever been a deeply interesting sub- 

 ject of investigation to the physiologist as well as to the naturalist, both of this and 

 of other countries, inasmuch as, from the facility of observation, it so admirably 

 illustrated the order of development and gi-owth of the various organs and parts of 



