Yl PREFACE. 



first time. The purchase of a Pengum by the Zoological Society has 

 afforded the rare opportunity of watching its subaqueous proceedings 

 (p. 4262), which have proved most interesting. At p. 4197 will be 

 found a brief account of the nesting of the Crowned Pigeon, showing 

 a strange discrepancy between the economy of this and the other 

 species of the same order : the young of the Crowned Pigeon being 

 about one-third the size of the adult when it leaves the nest ; the 

 Domestic Pigeon being full grown ; and both being fully feathered. 

 At p. 3998 is an extremely interesting, and I believe quite original, 

 observation, by Mr. Barrington, on the position in which the Tree 

 Creeper holds its legs when climbing a vertical trunk. 



Fishes. — I would emphatically call attention to the observation of 

 Mr. Hughes (p. 3895) on the sleep of Fishes : the euquu-y whether 

 Fishes sleep has been repeated over and over again ; and to Mr. 

 Hughes is due the credit of giving a satisfactory reply : — Fishes not 

 only sleep, but sleep soundly, lying perfectly stUl at the bottom of 

 Httle rock-pools left by the retiring tide ; and in the instance recorded 

 allowing Mr. Hughes to take them, one by one, out of the water, while 

 they still continued slumbering unconscious of danger. At p. 3872 I 

 have reprinted from 'Nature' a paper by Mr. Saville-Kent, intituled, 

 " Fish distinguished by then- Actions." Mr. Kent was kind enough to 

 send me this for repubhcation, knowing the extreme interest I took in 

 the doings of all living animals. The Fishes principally noticed are 

 the Smooth Hound, the Spotted Dog-fish, the Angel-fish, the 

 Gurnards, the Gemmeous Dragonets, the Pipe-fish, the Sea-horses, 

 and the John Doree, concerning all of which he has made original 

 observations. Again at p. 8838 Iilr. Howard Saunders has, I beUeve, 

 for the first time, recorded the spawning habits of the Flying Fish, as 

 observed by himself at the Chincha Islands, on the coast of Peru. 



Crustaceans. — The captm-e of the American King Crab, or Horse- 

 shoe Crab, off the coast of Holland, as recorded in the 'Zoologist' 

 last year, was regarded as a problem extremely difiicult of solution ; 

 but in the January number of this year (p. 3845) Mr. Lloyd informed 

 us that, when manager of the Hambiu'g Aquarium, having received a 

 greater quantity of King Crabs than he could possibly accommodate, he 

 packed them in a cask, shipped them on board a steamer bound for 

 London, and had them thrown into the sea on the British side of the 

 Uttle island of Heligoland. This was in August, 18GG ; and there is no 

 reason to doubt that either these very Crabs or their descendants were 

 captured on the same spot in 1874. 



Such are some of the results obtained ah-eady by diverting 

 observation into a channel comparatively new. 



Edwaed Newman. 



