1484 The Zoologist — iJecember, 1868. 



most frequently visited by this bird in autumn, and some are tilled tbere almost every 

 season. 



October 28. To-day I received a fine osprey : it was shot, on the '26th, at Carron : 

 it has frequented the Reservoir there for more than a month. The bird was observed 

 to dash amongst a lot of hens and chickens on a former occasion by the same man 

 who shot it, and he states that he is certain it carried off something in its talons. 

 Mr. Dawson, Manager of the Carron Iron Works, has lately lost from amongst his 

 poultry five or six hens and chickens, and blames this bird for having stolen them. 

 I have furnished Mr. R. Gray with fuller notes on the subject, which I consider 

 interesting, the more so as I can rely upon what my informant tells me as being true. 

 When shot the bird had a good-sized perch in its talons. The whole bird, feathers, 

 head and talons, had a most fish-like smell. — John A. Harvie Brown. 



Rare Birds in the North of Scotland. — A roller, a nutcracker, a snowy owl, besides 

 numbers of great spotted woodpeckers, have during the last month been obtained in 

 the North of Scotland. — Id. 



Rare Birds at Souihivold. — Mr. Cooper, on a visit to Captain Rumbold, at South- 

 wold, in Suffolk, saw a spooubill, which a fisherman had shot there on the 26th of 

 September: Captain Rumbold had had a long shot at the bird the day previous, but 

 missed it. A hoopoe was also shot at Southwold in the early part of the month, and a 

 shore lark on the 21st of October. — William Gibson; 28, Radnor Street, St. Luke's. 



Globe Fish at Penzance. — On the 26th of October I received a specimen of 

 Pennant's globe fish (Tetrodon Prnnantii), nineteen inches over all. The last speci- 

 men of which I find any record was taken in August, 1851, in this bay, and its capture 

 was noted by the late Mr. R. Q. Couch, in the second volume of the ' Transactions' of 

 the Penzance Natural History Society. My specimen had a distinct lateral line 

 beginning at the upper posterior part of the orbit, rising over the base of the pectoral, 

 running parallel to the back high over the pectoral laid flat until it cleared it, then 

 deflecting in a rapid curve until opposite the foik, whence it ran straight to the fork. 

 Having a specimen in the Museum with the globe distended, I was anxious to pre- 

 serve this one with the globe exhausted. The fish was brought to me with the globe 

 in this state, but it was found that, on removing the ligaments which regulated it, the 

 globe immediately distended itself to its full size, and so remained. In the stomach 

 (and mouth) was fresh sea-weed in considerable quantity, showing that the fish had 

 fed freely on it recently before its capture. The fish was taken at Penan porth, near 

 Truro. It was floated in with a lot of sea-weed, and was alive when taken, but whether 

 its globe was then distended I have no means of ascertaining. The globe was ex- 

 hausted when the fish reached me, and inasmuch as the gentleman who gave it to me 

 made no remark on it, I judge that the globe was in the same state as when it was 

 taken. The globe when distended fresh was a light bladder, covered with a padded 

 flexible spinous skin, capable of taking any amount of knocking about without 

 sustaining injury. — Thomas Cornish; Penzance, October 29, 1868. 



Enormous Eel. — An eel was caught by a fisherman at Oldbury-on-Sevem, on the 

 24th of October, weighing over eighty pounds. — Worcester Paper. 



Trout in Australia and New Zealand. — It is satisfactory to find that the trout 

 established in Tasmania arc being made the means of stocking other rivers both iu 



