NOTES AND QUERIES. 151 



She called them " Devon-fish," and seemed to think they must be valuable 

 as food, as she asked three shillings for seven of them. The dorsal fins 

 had not been removed, and they were in very good condition. Some had 

 the blue stripes still visible, so they could not have been long out of the 

 water. This fish is said to be taken singly when fishing for Mackerel and 

 Gurnards on the south coast of Devon in summer. Jt is also supposed to 

 be found on sandy shores only, but there is no sand near Beer. It is 

 remarkable that so many should have been taken together, and at this time 

 of the year. There was nothing in the stomachs of two T opened. The 

 abdominal cavity is remarkably small, being only two and a half inches 

 long in a fish a foot in length. — W. S. M. D'Urban (Albert Memorial 

 Museum, Exeter). 



Occurrence of the Argentine near Penzance. — By the kindness of 

 my friend Mr. Fortescue W. Millett, of Marazion, I have received a specimen 

 of the Argentine, Scopelus Humboldtii, Cuvier. It was picked up on the 

 beach between Marazion and Penzance, and precisely agrees with the 

 descriptions given by Yarrell and Couch, except that I failed to detect the 

 bright dots in the gill-covers noted by Couch. As it is the first specimen 

 noted as taken in Cornwall, I subjoin the following measurements : — I,ength 

 over all, two inches and four-sixteenths ; eye to fork, one inch and ten- 

 sixteenths ; greatest depth, seven-tenths of an inch. The bright dots along 

 the belly are of a pale green colour. — Thomas Cornish (Penzance). 



CRUSTACEA. 



Crustacea on the South Coast of Devon. — During the past autumn 

 and beginning of the present winter, in conjunction with Mr. C. W. Parker, 

 of Warren Cottage, Starcross, T have been investigating the marine fauna 

 of the coast between Sidmouth on the east and Teignraouth on the west, 

 and we have found it much more pioduclive than we were led to anticipate, 

 Mr. Parker combines a marvellous facility in detecting minute forms with 

 much skill in handling a boat and dredge, and has thoroughly ransacked the 

 rocks and beach near where he lives, as well as the bottom of the sea for 

 several miles out. Amongst a vast quantity of specimens of all classes 

 and orders we have obtained there were, besides many common forms, the 

 following rarer Crustacea: — Inachus dorsettensis, not very numerous; 

 dredged off Dawlish in fifteen fathoms on shelly ground. Pisa tetraodou, 

 one on Langstone Kocks in August. P. gibhsii, one dredged off Dawlish. 

 Hyas araneus, one very small specimen apparently of this species in a mass 

 of corallines thrown up on the beach at Exmouth. H. coarctatiis, two 

 dredged oft' Dawlish. Eurynome aspcra, not very uncommon off Dawlish in 

 August, the females being laden with ova. Xantho florida, in crevices of 

 rocks at Langstone Point, rather small in size, and not very numerous. 



