4806 Tue ZooLtocist—FEBRvUARY, 1876. 
British” torpedo (Torpedo hebetans, Lowe), which I should prefer to 
designate as the “ black” torpedo, since this name would serve to dis- 
tinguish it from its rarer English congener, Torpedo marmorata, Risso, 
which might be called the “‘ marbled” torpedo. The present specimen is a 
female, measuring thirty-four inches in total length and twenty-three inches 
in breadth at the widest part; the teeth are small and sharp, pointing 
inwards. The colour above a uniform dark brown, slightly inclining to 
reddish; below white, with a pink tinge; a narrow band of brown at the 
edge. There are no spots on any part of the upper surface, which is per- 
fectly smooth, as is also the margin of the spiracles. The stomach was 
empty. With regard to the indentation or notch on each shoulder, upon 
which Professor M‘Coy relied as a principal character in founding his new 
species, Torpedo emarginata (Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. vi., p. 407, 1841), it is to 
be observed that the present example, when laid upon its back, exhibits no 
indentation whatever; but when reversed, with the dark side uppermost, a 
small notch, or rather fold of the skin, is more or less visible, according to 
the manner in which the adjoining muscles are strained. The example 
agrees in every respect with the admirable figure of Torpedo nobiliana in 
Bonaparte’s ‘ Fauna Italica,’ with which it is evidently identical. Thompson 
enumerates only five instances of its occurrence on the Irish coast, and it is 
remarkable that all these were brought in by Dublin trawlers, like the 
present one; he himself examined but one specimen. I am informed that 
it is many years now since this rare and curious fish has been brought to 
our market.—J. Douglas Ogilby ; 36, Elgin Road, Dublin. 
Silvery Hairtail on the Coast of Devon.—On Thursday, the 20th of 
January, I recognised, at the shop of Mr. Peacock, animal preserver, 
Plymouth, a specimen of that exceedingly rare fish—in British waters 
—the silvery hairtail, or blade-fish (Zvrichiurus Lepturus), which had 
been captured several days previously (I believe on the 15th) in the 
Hamoaze, off Torpoint. Mr. Peacock not being aware of its name or 
rarity, and thinking that such a delicate fish (from its compressed form and 
its being so long out of water) could not well be skinned and stuffed in the 
usual way, had then done nothing towards preserving it, so I at once had it 
put into spirit. Its length is two feet eight inches, and its depth above two 
inches; colour on the back brownish, and sides very silvery; irides yellow. 
The tail is extended into a slender compressed cord. In every respect it 
agrees with the description given by Mr. Couch in his work on ‘ British 
Fishes,’ who says that the figure given in his book is the only representation 
that has been derived from an undoubted British specimen. There are no 
fins on the belly, the line of which forms a long, “ sharp, smooth edge.”— 
J. Gatcombe ; January 21, 1867. 
Giant Gray Mullet.—By the kindness of Mr. Symons, of Mayon House, 
I have received from the Land's End a gray mullet, which measures over 
