Bibliographical Notice, 325 



P. africanus came, not from Egypt, but from the island of 

 St. Thomas, in the Gulf of Guinea, where there occurs a 

 form of weasel indistinguishable from the above type. The 

 name africanus will therefore be most naturally applied to 

 the weasel of St. Thomas and to a similar form of which 

 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant recently procured a specimen at 

 Terceira, in the Azores, leaving the name subpalmatus, Hem- 

 prich and Ehrenberg, the exact allocation of which has long 

 been uncertain, for the weasels (formerly known as P. afri- 

 canus) of Egypt and Malta. The true africanus is now 

 shown to be a far larger and stronger animal than P. n. 

 subpalmatus, and it possesses a far more distinct caudal 

 " pencil" of dark brown hairs. It has a wavy line of de- 

 marcation, and the much restricted white colour of the under 

 surface is strongly washed with deep " buff-yellow." The 

 dimensions of the Azorean specimen reach, for the animal 

 measured in the flesh, head and body 266, tail 116, hind 

 foot 44, and ear 18 mm.j and for the skull, greatest length 49, 

 basal length 45'5, greatest breadth at zygoma 28, and 

 palatal length 21 mm. It was caught in a rat-trap, which 

 had been set for a buzzard. 



The occurrence of a weasel on the Azores must be re- 

 garded as a fact of considerable interest from the point of 

 view of the student of geographical distribution, still more 

 so as the animal is quite distinct from any known form 

 inhabiting Europe or the adjacent portions of Africa. That 

 a similar and undistinguishable weasel should be found on 

 the remote Island of St. Thomas is somewhat surprising, but 

 it seems a plausible hypothesis that the latter stock may have 

 been derived by introduction from the former. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Report on the Sea Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the Thames 

 Estuary. Prepared by Dr. James Mctrie. London : 1903. 

 Printed by order of the Kent and Esses Sea Fisheries Committee. 



This report reflects great credit on the enthusiastic naturalist who,, 

 almost unaided, has accumulated in its pages an extraordinary mass, 

 of original and well-arranged information. Much has been done of 

 late years for the improvement of the scientific aspect of our sea. 

 fisheries, but the Thames estuary had been entirely neglected. 



After introducing his readers to the physical formation of the 

 Thames estuary and to the history of Leigh-on-Sea, the fishing- 

 station where his observations have been made, the author deals 

 successively with the various members of the fauna which are in 

 some way or other of commercial importance — Seals and Cetaceans, 



