The Zoologist — Novembkk, 1868. 1463 



Iceland and Glaucous Gulls off the Dublin Coast. — September 5, 1867. Saw a 

 perfectly adult Iceland gull: it still had the wbite head of summer. November 19, 

 1867. An Iceland gull passed me in cream-coloured plumage. March 8, 1868. Ice- 

 land gull in cream-coloured plumage. December 13, 1867. An adult glaucous gull 

 passed me to-day. In the beginning of 1868 I also noticed a few young birds of this 

 iiue species. — H. Blake-Knox ; September 7, 1868. 



Allice Shad at St. Ives. — The allice shad was taken yesterday off St. Ives. The 

 fish is not of common occurrence in our western seas. — Thomas Cornish; Penzance, 

 September 19, 1868. 



Short-finned Tunny (Thynnus brachypterus) at Penzance. — The specimeu was 

 8$; inches over all. It had not so many fin-rays in the first dorsal as Mr. Couch's 

 figure and letter-press show, and it had two short free soft rays between the first and 

 second dorsals. The fish was taken in the pilchard drift-nets on the 20th of August. 

 — Id. 



Saury Pike or Skipper at Penzance. — A specimen of the Saury pike or skipper 

 (Scomberesox Saurus, Yarrell) leaped of its own accord on board a fishing-boat, about 

 two miles off the Black Head, near Falmouth, on Thursday night. There is nothing 

 remarkable in the specimen. The fish, which is a surface-swimmer, is mentioned as 

 having been commonly captured when the pilchard drift-nets fished shoal, but now 

 they fish deep it but rarely occurs. This is the first specimen I have seen. I had the 

 fish dressed, and found it not agreeable as food: the flesh was very white, remarkable 

 for an absence of anything like flake, and had a slight and disagreeable sour flavour. — 

 Id.; October 3, 1868. 



Bream in the Lea. — Bream are a curious fish, and appear here and there where 

 least expected ; but, however erratic may be the sudden congregations of these Abramis 

 vulgaris, there is doubtless some good and sufficient reason for the phenomenon. The 

 last two years they appeared in the Wey at Guildford in immense quantities; and 

 their advent at Walton-on-the-Thames, where they continue, it would seem, as 

 abundant as ever, is of comparatively recent date. This season they have shown them- 

 selves in the Lea about Tottenham Mills, and two of Joe Noakes's subscribers of the 

 Ferry Boat fishery took, on the 13th of October, forty-five pouuds weight of these fish ; 

 and since that date (say to the 16th) there have been more than an additional aggre- 

 gate of one hundred pounds, the fish varying from three-quarters of a pound to four 

 pounds in weight — an occurrence never known in this vicinity before. — ' Field' 

 Newspaper. 



The Colour-patterns of Butterflies. — The Rev. H. H.Higgins, in a paper pub- 

 lished in the 'Quarterly Journal of Science' for July, 1868, discusses the possible 

 origin of the colours and patterns upon the wings of Lepidoptera; but his views, 

 though ingenious, must I think be acknowledged to be open to several grave ob- 

 jections, the more serious of which seem to be the following. First, at p. 324, 

 Mr. Higgins asks, " Can any clue to the subsequent arrangement of the colours be 

 found in the manner in which the wings are folded in the pupa state? If a scrawl of 



