The Zoologist — September, 1867. 917 



previously contained valerianate of potash, it will readily be imagined that my first 

 impressions of it, as a delicacy for breakfast, were not favourable. Does it occur any 

 where except in the Straits of Malacca? — W. Thompson ; City Club. 



Mackerel in the Boulogne Aquarium.— I believe that your readers will be interested 

 to learn that I have not only succeeded in introducing the mackerel into the aquarium 

 of this town, but that the specimens introduced have lived for so long a time under 

 such unfavourable conditions as to enable me to say with certainty that they could, in 

 a properly constructed aquarium, be preserved for the term of their natural lives. 

 There are, in fact, now living in one of the tanks here three mackerel, one of which was 

 put in so long ago as the 29th of June last, a second came on the 7th, and a third on 

 the 8th of July. These fish were all caught by the hook and line, and were all more 

 or less injured by having had their scales removed in large patches; these iujuries 

 are now fairly in course of being repaired, and a very short time will suffice 

 to restore them all to as perfect a condition as they were in before they had the mis- 

 fortune to swallow the delusive strip of skin, cut from the side of a previously-hooked 

 relation, which led to their being placed in so novel a position. Both Dr. Giiuther and 

 Dr. Couch have expressed great surprise that it should be possible to preserve alive, 

 within the narrow limits of an aquarium, a fish " so truly pelagic" in its habits. My 

 observations here, however, satisfy me that a necessity imposed upon the mackerel by 

 its gregarious habit, by its voracity, and by the habits of the fish upon which it feeds, 

 has been mistaken for a necessity imposed upon it by its organization. I am led to 

 this conclusion by the fact that the specimens which we have here frequently go 

 through their evolutions, for hours in succession, within a space which does not exceed 

 in extent eight feet by six feet; and this is of daily occurrence, although the aquarium 

 in which they are confined has a length of forty feet, with a breadth of thirty feet 

 at one end and of sixteen at the other. — John Smith, late Keeper of Boulogne 

 Aquarium ; Bovlogne-sur-Mer. 



[Those Englishmen who have thoroughly studied the aquariums in Paris, Ham- 

 burgh, Boulogne and other continental towns, cannot but wonder why we have not 

 similar exhibitions here. Why should our Zoological Society be so behind hand iu 

 this departmeut? — Edward Newman.'] 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



' A Summary of the Occurrences of the Gray Phalarope in Great 

 Britain in 1866.' By J. H. Gurnev, jun. London: John 

 Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1867. 



The gray phalarope was formerly so rare or so little known in 

 Great Britain that Pennant knew of but two instances of its occur- 

 rence, and Montagu tells us he had never enjoyed the opportunity of 

 examining it at different seasons of the year; we learn, however, that 

 Mr. Yarrell had heard of its occurrence in so many of our English 

 counties that he thought it undesirable to enumerate them : still the 

 fact of its occurrence last autumn in such numbers as have been 



