Immense Blue Skate. 435 



that any one should have visited the gardens with a premedi- 

 tated intention of stealing the animals. — Ed. 



Capture of an immense Specimen of the Blue Skate (Bdia 

 Bdtis Linn.). — Captain Herreman, commander of the fishing 

 sloop Eliza, coming from the cod fishery off Feroe, has 

 brought ashore here, in a live state, a monstrous ray, 8 ft. 

 8 in. in length from the head to the end of the tail, and 6 ft. 

 2 in. in width; its thickness is 13 in.; its mouth, furnished 

 with 8 rows of teeth, displays an opening of 6| in. No one 

 in the town has ever seen one so gigantic ; it was exposed to 

 the view of the public, and attracted many observers. 



From the specific marks that we have been able to re- 

 cognise in this animal, we think that we may refer its species 

 to the Raia Batis ; although its characters are, in a great 

 measure common to the Raia oxyrhynchus (Alene), its single 

 row of spines upon the tail has decided us in favour of the 

 Raia Batis, a ray which is found in the seas of Europe, and 

 is frequently taken in fishing in the Mediterranean, where it 

 is known under the names of Flossade, Coliard, Sea Cow, 

 and Couverture ; it is also known under the name of the 

 Raie cendiee. 



The owner of this fish has assured us, that it weighs 192 

 kilogrammes [423 lb. 6oz.]; the greatest weight cited by 

 the naturalist Rose, in the article Ray of the new Dictionary 

 of Natural History, is of the species Batis, and is only 200 

 livres [220 lb. 8 oz. 2 dr.]. (Precurseur d'A?ivers, for July, 

 1837.) 



Multiplication of Generic Synonymes quoted in U Hermes. — 

 We have often taken occasion to protest against the number 

 of names given to the same objects in natural history ; greater 

 and greater confusion is arising from it, without the least 

 benefit to science ; there results from it also, and that may 

 suit some nomenclators, that he whose studies date many years 

 back, is already exposed to the danger of passing for an igno- 

 ramus, if he has not kept in the track of all the new denomin- 

 ations which are daily created, so as either to adopt them, or 

 at least to include them as synonymous with the older deno- 

 minations, repeating at the same time the name of the inventor. 

 These reflections naturally find a place in connection with 

 the observations which have lately been bestowed upon the 

 acephalous mollusc with a bivalve shell, described at first 

 by Pallas under the name of the Mytilus polymorphic. This 

 mollusc, which is very curious, on account of its inhabiting 

 fresh water, had been found at first in the Volga, and has 

 since been discovered in the canals of Holland, and in the 

 Meuse. It seems at first sight, to differ from the Mylili 



