372 Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 



23. Notice respecting a Pigeon which continued to live two 

 days without Brain and upper part of Spinal Marrow. — M. 

 Desportes, a physician, lately sent to the Academy of Sciences 

 of Paris an account of an observation in which he saw a young 

 pigeon live for two days in its shell, of which it could not rid 

 itself; as well as some time after, although the brain and upper 

 part of the spinal marrow were wanting. The author of the 

 letter, deceived by the accounts given in some journals, had ima- 

 gined this observation to be in contradiction to what M. Flou- 

 rens had announced with respect to the influence of the spinal 

 marrow upon respiration. M. Flourens remarked, that the im- 

 portant fact observed by the author is in no degree opposed to 

 the inferences deducible from his experiments. A report is to 

 be made to the Academy respecting M. Desportes's observations. 



24. The Sprat not the young of the Herring and Pil- 

 chard. — Mr Yarrell remarks in the Zoological Journal, No. xvi, 

 that on comparing a sprat with a young herring of the same 

 length, the sprat will be found to be considerably deeper, and 

 the scales much larger ; in this latter circumstance the sprat 

 resembles the pilchard ; but the pilchard, on the other hand, is 

 not so deep a fish as the herring. The sprat and herring dif- 

 fer also in the number of rays in three of the fins out of the 

 four they possess, and also in the tail, as the following numbers 

 exhibit. 



Dors. 

 Sprat, - 17 



Herring, - 17 



There is also one other most material difference, the verte- 

 brae in the sprat are 48 in number ; in the herring there 

 are 56. 



25. White Bait not the ycning of the Shad. — Mr Yarrel 

 has shewn in the Zoological Journal, that the white bait is not 

 the young of the shad, or Clupea alosa, but a well-marked and 

 distinct species, which he names Clupea alba. We have now 

 five British species of clupea, viz. 1. CI. Harengus (Herring); 

 2. CI. Pilcardus (Pilchard) ; 3. CI. alba (White Bait) ; 4. CI. 

 Alosa (Shad or Mother of Herrings), Cl. Spratus. 



26. On Squalus Maximus. — Mr De Kay read in the Ly- 

 ceum of Natural History, York, a description of a large species 



