388 The Zoologist — September, 1866. 



Staofurd Rivers Hall there was a small circular grotto in the garden, at the end of a 

 narrow path closely shaded by trees and shrubs. Seats were fixed round this liille 

 grotto close to the walls. When at Stanford Rivers some years since, Miss Dix 

 wished me to look at the wings of moths which were lying on the seats in immense 

 numbers: they consisted of numerous species, including Tri|ili8ena pronuba,T. fimbria, 

 T. orbona and T. janthina, Xylophasia polyodon, An)phipyra ))yramidea, Agrolis 

 sufTusa, &c. I am convinced that these wings were those of moths carried there by 

 bats, probably the longeared species, which differed much in its habits from the other 

 British bats. Miss Dix is now here on a visit, and she says she has repeatedly seen 

 the bats flying in and out of this grotto, and has no doubt whatever that they carried 

 the moths there and clipped off their wings before eating the bodies. Mr. English 

 once found twenty-four pairs of wings of Geometra pajiilionariii lying on the ground in 

 one ol the rides of Ongar Park Woods: no one surely will believe that these moths 

 were destroyed by mice or spiders. When sallows grow over a pond the water is often 

 strewed, when they are in bloom, with the wings of Tteniocainpa golliica, T. inslabiiis, 

 T. stabilis and other early species, and T am certain that this destruction is caused by 

 bats. Wasps will bite off the wings of insects which they have capiureil, but I never 

 saw a spider do anything of the kind with moths caught in its web, which I think 

 would not hold some of the species, the wings of which were lying in the grotto at 

 Stanford Rivers ; and I do not believe that the innths were carried there by mice, as it 

 would be almost impossible for them to capture some of the species, the wings of which 

 were lying about in great numbers on the seats in the grotto. — Henry Doubleday ; 

 Epping, August 6, 1866. 



Curious Scene at Sea. — On Friday last I was the eye-witness of a very extra- 

 ordinary scene. We were sailing in a smooth summer sea, with a li|>ht wind, about 

 a mile and a half S.S.W. of Carn Boscaweu, between this place and the Logan Rock, 

 in about thirty fathoms of water, when suddenly, within thirty fathoms of our port-bow, 

 two very large fish rose perpendicular to the water, belly to belly, in close embrace, 

 until nothing but the actual tail portions of their bodies remained iminersed, and 

 immediately fell back one on the other, causing a tremendous swirl as they sank. A 

 second or two afterwards, and before the agitation of the water had disappeared, a fish, 

 probably one of those we had seen, leaped out of the water through the swirl at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees, to a height which left its tail clear by a few feet of the 

 water, and of course immediately fell in again. Immediately afterwards my boat 

 passed through the commotion in the waters caused by these proceedings, and we saw 

 just astern the high and acutely-angled dorsals of two fish, apparently in company, 

 rising from two to three feet above the surface of the water. About thirty fathoms 

 south of these two fins, a similar fin was visible. We went on our way, and soon lost 

 sight of ihein. The two fish rose from the water, and the single fish afterwards jumped, 

 as I have mentioned, close to us, so close that I could distinguish the eye and the 

 the position of the mouth of the jumping fish, as well as, of course, its colour, but the 

 whole affair was momentary. Judging by comparison with the spars of my boat, our 

 punt and other things at hand, the fish that jumped must have been close upon, if not 

 more than twenty feet long, and in depth it was about as 1 in 6 to its length. Its head 

 was very large ; its mouth was situated well down in the lower part of the head, its eye 

 was easily to be seen, and iu colour was dark lead-blue over the back, and flake-white 

 in the belly. So far as memory has served me in my researches since, the fish came 



