Miscellaneous. 237 
Stint; seeing a vast number more, which we were unable to get 
at, and invariably in company with the Dunlin or Purre. So many 
having been seen of this hitherto considered rare bird, is, I think, 
too interesting a fact not to be placed on record.—J. U. G. Gurcn. 
FOSSIL FISH. 
In a description of a Fossil Dragon Fly from the lias of War- 
wickshire, in the Magazine of Nat. Hist. for June last, p. 301, I 
stated that one of the fossil fish, found in the same locality, ‘ ap- 
pears to be a Cycloid, and furnishes an exception to the general- 
ization of M. Agassiz, that no cycloidian fish occurs below the 
chalk.”” I have since had an opportunity of showing this fish to 
M. Agassiz, who proved to me, that although the scales of this 
fish bear much resemblance at first sight to those of a Cycloid, yet 
that it is in fact a Ganoid of the genus Pholidophorus. ‘The above 
generalization of M. Agassiz, therefore, remains as yet without an 
exception.—H. E. Srrickuanp. 
REMARKS ON A SPECIMEN OF KINGFISHER, SUPPOSED TO FORM A NEW 
SPECIES OF THE TANYSIPTERA, 
The deception which is sometimes practised on naturalists by con- 
tinental preparers of objects of natural history, is well exemplified 
by a specimen of a Kingfisher which was purchased in Paris, and is 
now before me. The specimen decidedly belongs to the genus Ta- 
nysiptera, of which there is but one species hitherto described, the 
Tanysiptera Dea, a bird rarely seen in collections, though the British 
Museum contains two good specimens. That to which I now wish 
to call the attention of ornithologists, differs much from the Tuny- 
siptera Dea, both by the shortness of the central tail-feathers and by 
the richness of the several colours with which it is ornamented: and 
from these differences it was concluded to be a beautiful new spe- 
cies. But on examining the specimen carefully, some doubt arose 
as to the fact, whether it had not been, in part, at least, artfully 
dressed in its present showy plumage, from observing that the struc- 
ture of some of the feathers was of a more downy nature, especially 
on the uropygium and beneath the body, than those usually cover- 
ing the body of Kingfishers. ‘This idea was rendered certain by the 
discovery that the wings were decidedly those of an Alcedo Senega- 
lensis. ‘The addition of wings and feet is not, however, uncommon 
in stuffed specimens of birds which come from New Guiana, as the 
natives prepare the skins without those parts, for use as ornaments, 
and from them the skins are procured and brought to Europe. A 
further examination proved that the downy feathers (which are of a 
rich salmon colour) of the uropygium, and most of those beneath 
the body, had been taken from a specimen of Trogon Duvaucelii ; 
while on the sides these latter feathers are mixed with others from 
the neck of a young bird of Alcedo leucocephala, probably thus 
placed in order to diminish the probability of determining their 
identity. Having thus shown that all the under part is decep- 
tively put together, it may reasonably be concluded that the feet 
