The Zoologist — January, 1807. 503 



eagles on their summit Mr. Danford goes on to say: — "Last year be (Mr. Boycott) 

 was watching for eagles at the cliffs I told you of, shot one, and was just going to 

 load again, when he saw another bird coming. He fired at and winged it, and it fell 

 on tbe edge of the cliff. He went up to hit it with bis loading-rod, and saw to his 

 surprise that it was a different kind of bird, pure while head, and all the other plumage 

 dark. It just flapped over the cliff and fell on a ledge below. He went down, and 

 almost got a bit at it, when it struggled a bit, and this time toppled clean over into the 

 sea." Mr. Danford conclude?, " Without doubt, from bis (Boycott's) description, it 

 must have been the American baldbeaded eagle." Such is Mr. Danford's letter, and 

 I leave it to you to think over. For my part I think there is nothing improbable in 

 tbe fact of its really having been the American eagle. The wild coasts of west Ireland 

 have been but little explored comparatively by tbe ornithologist, and there is no place 

 iu all the British islands more suited for that bird to place its foot. It is nearest to 

 its native country, and the cliffs are as high if not higher than any others along that 

 coast. — John A. Uarvie Brown ; December 24, 1866. 



Curative Powers of the Tench. — I have just read in to-day's 'Standard' that 

 "A few years since the ponds in Frogmore Gardens (Windsor) were dragged for the 

 purpose of destroying the jack, when one was caught weighing between thirty and 

 forty pounds, with a tench weighing seven pounds in its pouch." There has long 

 been a notion prevalent among anglers that of all fresh-water fish the tench alone 

 enjoys perfect immunity from the attacks of the jack or pike. It has been imagined 

 that the slimy matter which covers the scales of the tench has peculiar curative 

 powers, of which the pike is fully aware, and this superstitious notion, like many 

 similar ones, has been adopted by the poets : 



" Close to his side the kind physician glides, 

 And sweats the healing balsam from bis sides." 



If this privilege really exists it is more probably owing to a certain distaste in the 

 pike for the balsamic secretion of the tench, but if tbe above-quoted instance is true, 

 it would seem that the last-named fish may trust too confidingly in the forbearance of 

 the " fresh-water shark." I should like to bear the experiences of others on this 

 subject. — George Guyon; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, October 24, 1866. 



Scyllarus arctus near Penzance. — A specimen of Scyllarus arctus was brought to 

 me yesterday : it was thrown up by a cod which was caught near Mousehole Island, in 

 this Bay. It was perfectly fresh and uninjured, and must have been swallowed by tbe 

 cod very shortly indeed before its capture. This makes the fourth specimen captured 

 in English waters of which I am aware. Tbe earliest is in the collection of Mr. Couch, 

 of Polperro, taken from the stomach of a cod captured off that place. The next is a 

 specimen in the collection of the late Mr. It. Q. Couch, of this place, of which no 

 particulars are known, beyond that it was probably taken in this Bay early in 1863. 

 The third was taken alive here last year, and noted in your pages by me, and this 

 fourth is procured in the same waters as the third. My two specimens will be found 

 in the Museum here. — Thomas Cornish ; Penzance, November 28, 1866. 



