304 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Continent was, I believe, mainly confined to the Madras Presidency, where the 

 vernacular of Gangetic India is a foreign tongue. — C. Donovan, jun. (Myross 

 Wood, Leap, Co. Cork). 



FISHES. 



Sea Lamprey killed by an Otter. — On May 29th I had an opportunity 

 of examining a large Sea Lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, which had been 

 rescued from the jaws of an Otter by a keeper, who was walking on the 

 banks of the tidal portion of the River Tavy. It was an exceedingly fine 

 specimen, full of spawu, measuring 33i inches in length and turned the 

 scale at three pounds. On seeing the keeper, the Otter made off, leaving 

 its prey behind. Sea Lampreys are by no means common with us. — John 

 Gatcombe (55, Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Devon). 



A Conger in a Lobster pot. — Last May, during a visit to Jersey, I 

 went with a fisherman to visit his Lobster pots, with the idea of 

 obtaining any interesting Crustacea that might have entered with the 

 Lobsters. We were not very successful : one pot contained a large number 

 of the common Carcinus manas, of a variety of colour and markings ; in 

 others we fouud Portunus puber, Cancer paffurus, Pahrmon serratiis, and 

 Pagurus bernhardus. Of course there was a quantity of molluscs, and a few 

 fish. Presently we hauled a pot that contained a good-sized Conger; in 

 fact he had just managed to get into the pot ; but the remarkable part of it 

 was that he had swallowed the bait and hook on one string (the bait being 

 hung to the lip of the pot on a large hook attached to about nine inches of 

 string). He had then evidently managed to reach and swallow another bait 

 and hook, for when we found him he was firmly fixed, the two lines being 

 taut, and diverging from his mouth to the two opposite sides of the pot's 

 mouth. The voracity of these animals does not appear to be in any way 

 interfered with by bodily pain, for it was evident that this fellow had the 

 first hook pretty firmly embedded in his gullet before he attacked the 

 second. — Edward Loyett (Croydon). 



MOLL USC A. 



Limax cinereo-niger an Addition to the List of British Slugs. 

 — Until now this species — a conspicuously marked and readily recognisable 

 form — has been regarded by British conchologists as a form or variety of 

 L. maximw. It is now regarded by the best continental authorities as a 

 valid and distinct species. It differs both in external and in anatomical 

 characters, the latter turning upon the structure of the generative organs. 

 Its external diagnostic characters are the following: — The shield is uni- 

 colorous, without markings, or only exhibiting slight traces towards the 

 margin ; the respiratory orifice is margined with a duiker hue of the body- 

 colour; the body is, like the shield, usually unicolorous; the dorsal keel 

 and a line continuing it to the posterior extremity of the shield are usually 



