Miscellaneous . 151 



nearly three feet, I brought out some freshly-cast bones of fish, con- 

 vincing me that I was right in my surmise. The day following, the 

 9th of May, I again visited the spot with a spade, and, after removing 

 nearly 2 feet square of the turf, dug down to the nest without dis- 

 turbing the entrance-hole or the passage which led to it. Here I 

 found four eggs placed on the usual layer of fish-bones ; all of these 

 I removed with care, and then filled up the hole, beating the earth 

 down as hard as the bank itself, and replacing the sod on the top in 

 order that barge-horses passing to and fro might not put a foot in 

 the hole. A fortnight afterwards the bird was seen to leave the hole 

 again, and my suspicion was awakened that she had taken to her old 

 breeding-quarters a second time. The first opportunity I had of 

 again visiting this place, which was exactly twenty-one days from 

 the date of my former exploration and taking the eggs, I again passed 

 the top of my fly-rod up the hole, and found not only that the hole 

 was of the former length, but that the female was within. I then 

 took a large mass of cotton w^ool from my collecting-box, and stuffed 

 it to the extremity of the hole, in order to preserve the eggs and nest 

 from damage during my again laying it open from above. On re- 

 moving the sod and digging down as before, I came upon the cotton 

 wool, and beneath it a well-formed nest of fish-bones, the size of a 

 small saucer, the walls of which were fully half an inch thick, 

 together with eight beautiful eggs and the old female herself. 

 This mass of bones, then, weighing 700 grains, had been cast up 

 and deposited by the bird or the bird and its mate, besides the 

 unusual number of eight eggs, in the short space of twenty-one days. 

 To gain anything like an approximate idea of the number of fish that 

 had been taken to form this mass, the skeleton of a minnow, their 

 usual food, must be carefully made and weighed ; and this I may 

 probably do upon some future occasion. I think we may now con- 

 clude, fiom what I have adduced, that the bird purposely deposits 

 these bones as a nest ; and nothing can be better adapted, as a plat- 

 form, to defend the eggs from the damp earth. — Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 May 10, lb59. 



Descriptions of new Species of Salamanders from China and Siatn. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., &c. 



Mr. Fortune, on his late return from China, brought with him for 

 the British Museum a bottle containing a Salamander, some Fishes, 

 and a Leech, collected from a river on the north-east coast of China, 

 inland from Xingpo. 



The Fishes are two varieties (olive and golden) of a very peculiar 

 monstrosity of the common gold fish of China, Cyprinus atiratus, 

 which has long been known, and is figured in several of the Chinese 

 works. 



It is peculiar for having a very short and thick body, entirely de- 

 stitute of any dorsal fin, with a regularly trifid or three-finned tail, 

 and more especially for having very large and swollen eyes, which 

 give a distorted appearance to the animal, — the pupil of the eyes 



