The Zoologist — June, 1871. 2647 



large Slate Stone iu the Stomach of a Cuttle-fish.— One of our Ssher- 

 men, a mau on whose word I can rely, has just brought me a smooth slate 

 stone of irregular shape, four inches long, two broad, and one inch through 

 in the thickest part, weighing close on six ounces, which he took out of the 

 stomach of a common cuttle-fish. There are a few small corallines on the 

 stone, but else the surface of it is perfectly bare. — Thomas Cornish. 



Toracious and Cauuibalistic Propensities of some Fishes. — While riding 

 along the Ganges Canal this morning at low-water mark, I obseiwed a fish 

 struggling in the water, which was just there about a foot deep. On securing 

 it, what was my astonishment to find that the fish was in its death-struggle, 

 having choked from swallowing another of its own species, fully half its own 

 size, the tail end of which protruded out of its mouth by four inches ! The 

 united efforts of myself and syce failed to relieve the "purun," which is the 

 vernacular name of this species, and as neither of us had ever before acted 

 as accoucheur, both creatures died under our treatment. I had to make an 

 incision in the stomach of the fish before the one that had been swallowed 

 could be extracted. The former measured 95 inches in length, 5^ inches 

 at its greatest breadth, and 3 inches at gape, and weighed IJ seer ; the 

 latter was 14|- inches loug, breadth 9i inches, and weighed one fourth of a 

 seer. The purun (its scientific name I forget just at present) is very 

 abundant in all Indian rivers, jheels and nullahs. It is a sort of fresh-water 

 shark, and is most destructive in preserved ponds, where they live almost 

 exclusively on the rohoo [Cyprinus rohita). ' They attain to an enormous 

 size, and I believe have been frequently killed in the Ganges weighing from 

 30 to 40 seers. To those who do not believe in scaleless fish being good in 

 this country, all I can say is that, as regards this species, it is altogether a 

 popular delusion. I found both of these excellent. The purun is certainly 

 not a very inviting-looking fish, and I confess I was somewhat loth to eat 

 them, as I had, only a little way higher up the canal, seen a Hindoo that 

 had stranded high and dry. — A. Anderson; Futtehgurh, N.W.P., March 16, 

 1871. 



Frozen Frog restored to Animation. — On passing by a frozen ditch one 

 morning during the late frost, I observed a frog frozen on the ice : he was 

 just by a hole that had been broken for dipping water. He had probably 

 come up to breathe, and was about six inches from the hole when his 

 progress was arrested by his being suddenly frozen solid : thus he lay, 

 without the least sign of life ; his hind legs were stretched out, his eyes 

 closed, and his belly drawn in. I had heard of dead frogs being restored to 

 life, so I resolved to try the experiment with this one. I took him into the 

 house, and placed him at some little distance from the fire : he had laid 

 there for about half an hour when I perceived a slight pulsation at the 

 extremity of the body ; this gradually increased, one hind leg was slowly 



