2444 The Zoologist — January, 1871. 



Pi'cservatiou of Sea-fowl. — Under tliis headiug appears a very Idml 

 article (Zool. S. S. 2387), in which the writer hopes the "close season" for 

 the destruction of sea-fowl may be extended to the 1st of September. 

 Though 1 am quite as fond a friend of these birds as Mr. Menncll, I cannot 

 at all see the necessity of an extension of " close time." Wlien gulls and 

 other sea-fowl are allowed to breed normally, few if any birds are unfit for 

 the sea by the 1st of August; but no doubt where the eggs are taken as 

 late as the 14th of June, and the birds compelled to lay two and even three 

 nests, the young birds will be to some pairs nil, and to others as late as a 

 month or six weeks. Because parties renting islands can make money by 

 keeping the birds back by destroying their eggs, is that any reason the 

 public, and naturalists in particular, should be compelled, in districts 

 where none of this goes on, to wait tiU the birds have quitted the country 

 before they can shoot? Let Mr. Mennell visit any of our normal bird 

 rocks, and he will be of my opinion, for here there is no " preserving," and 

 yet the birds are strong and away by the 1st of August. Instead of 

 extending tlie " close " season, I would curtail (in both senses) the egging 

 season, and allow no eggs to be taken after the first week in May ; or, better 

 still, let the Parliamentary pets quietly incubate their first eggs. It seems 

 to me quite unfair that A., 13. and 0. may breakfast, dine and sup off eggs, 

 while I, as good a man, cannot " pot" or even " stuff" a chicken. The Sea- 

 fowl Act is a triumph to every true naturalist; it is a genuine good law, 

 but still there is a proverb, " Too much of a good thing." — //. Blake- 

 Knox. 



Silrery flaii'tail lii Mount's Bay. — A specimen of the silvery hairtail 

 [Tricliiunis lepturus) was taken on Satui'day, the 3rd instant, in a pilchard 

 drift-net in deep water oif ]\Iousehole, Mount's Bay. It was perfect, and 

 two feet five inches in length over all. I have no remark to add to the 

 description of this rare fish which I gave on the occasion of the capture of 

 my former specimen in 1807. I hear from ]\Ir. Clogg, of Polperro, that a 

 specimen was taken off that place the week before last, which lie forwarded 

 to the Editor of 'Laud and Water.' — Thomas Cornish; Penzance, Dec. 5, 

 1870. 



PS. — I have to-day received another specimen of the silvery hairtail, two 

 feet six and a half inches over all. This specimen was taken in a drift- 

 net, just as the one was which I mentioned to you yesterday. — 1\ C. ; 

 December (Jth. 



Silvery Hairtaiis at looCj Polperro^ &c. — On Tuesday evening, the 

 29tli of November last, a specimen of the silvery hairtail was taken in 

 Whitsand Bay, about a mile and a half off Downderry, and four miles from 

 Looe, by one of our fishermen in his herring-net ; it was brought to me 



