Reptiles— Fishes. 9295 
On neither of these days were any ducks or cormorants to be seen, 
both of which used formerly to be numerons. 
H. W. Newman. 
Hillside, Cheltenham, 
August 3, 1864. 
A Toad in a Rock forty feet below Ground.—A most interesting discovery was 
made in Newton Quarry, near Elgin, by the workmen of Messrs. Humphrey and 
Rennie, builders, Elgin, lessees of the works. The men, while engaged in blasting a 
rock with no seam in it that would have admitted the edge of a sixpenny piece, were 
astonished to see, when they had blasted the rock, a small hole, and a toad creeping 
out of it. The hole was not in a seam, so as to countenance the probability of the 
toad having got into it, but, we repeat, in solid rock, and, as a proof of this, we have 
the evidence of our own sight, for both stone and toad are now in this office beside us, 
kindly sent, at our request by Mr. Humphrey. The hole would hold a man’s fist, and 
is coated with clay or fuller’s earth of a darkish colour, or brown, not very different 
from that of the creature that for unnumbered ages had slumbered in it forty feet 
below the level of the surrounding country, and more than twenty feet below the sur- 
face of the rock. It is a curious fact that the cleavage that expused the toad laid bare 
four other holes exactly on the same level, all about the same size as that in which the 
toad had lain, and they were coated with dark-coloured clay, countenancing the pro- 
bability that each of these holes may have at one time contained a toad, but that by 
some means all had perished but one.—Elgin Courant. [Communicated by P. H. 
Gosse, F.R.S.] 
The Maigre in Mount’s Bay.—A Sciena (Couch) or Maigre (Yarrell) was taken in 
Mounvs Bay this morning, which I note on account of its remarkably small size. 
Length over all, 1 foot 10 inches ; length from eye to fork, 1 foot 6 inches; greatest 
girth, taken around the body, about two-thirds the length of the pectoral fin from the 
origin of the same fin, and giving a depth of about 5 inches, 1 fuot. I omitted to 
weigh the fish, but should think it weighed 4 or 5 pounds. The lateral line ran on to 
the very end of the tail, scaled through the caudal fin-rays. The operculum terminated 
in a free membrane, and had towards the upper part of it a thin flat semitransparent 
hony point projecting backwards and downwards. The pre-operculum was serrated, or 
rather, I should say, studded along its lower edge with small detached teeth. The 
dorsals were connected by a membrane. The teeth of the upper jaw were very large 
and regular, curved inwards : -those of the lower jaw were smaller, and not so regular. 
Inside the teeth of the upper jaw, and parallel with them, there was a rough, bony 
process, but no teeth. There were dentated bony processes in the throat at the eutrance 
of the gullet. The tongue was tied down, except about half an inch of the tip. The 
jaws, both inside and outside the teeth, were of a dusky orange-colour. The colour 
was iridescent bronze on the back, shading off to white on the belly, and nowhere par- 
ticularly brilliant. The fin-rays were—D 9: 1.29; P 16 0r17; V 1.5; A 1-8 (the 
final fin-ray very soft, and divided near its origin; C (including the scaled lateral line) 17. 
The air-bladder was 73 inches long, and had the fringed edges peculiar to the fish. 
In opening the fish these fringes appeared around the air-bladder like a packing of 
small white threads. The fish was taken on a hook and line, and had, at the time of 
