NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 



1 J in. ; from snout to eye, 4J in. ; weight about 1 cwt. : nine finlets between 

 second dorsal and caudal fin, and eight between anal and caudal ; corslet 

 not marked ; colour dark grey on back, silvery white on sides and belly ; 

 gill-covers finely ciliated ; the lateral line waved near the tail ; between the 

 last ray of first dorsal and the second dorsal a space of 1£ in., but the 

 groove is continuous, and probably another ray is developed in older indi- 

 viduals ; vertebral column and processes very rigid, and of great strength 

 and hardness ; ribs very bug elastic rods of bone ; small and very sharp 

 teeth in the jaws, but none on the tongue, vomer, or palatines ; tongue 

 black, very large, and solid ; flesh extremely muscular, dark and meat-like 

 in appearance ; abdominal cavity gorged with dark blood ; nothing in 

 stomach ; heart shaped like the triangular lead-sinkers sometimes used by 

 sea fishermen, the base perfectly flat. This specimen answers exactly to 

 the description of Orcynus brachypterus, Cuv. & Val., which Dr. F. Day 

 considers the young of the Common Tunny. Specimens of this fish, of 

 large size, have been taken at Plymouth, Dartmouth, and Dawlish, but this 

 is the first instance of its occurrence in the Exe, and the great distance it 

 had reached from the sea is remarkable. I purchased the specimen for this 

 Museum, but I am sorry to say the effort to preserve it has not been very 

 successful. Whether the fact of the fish having been about forty-eight 

 hours out of water in warm weather had weakened the skin, or whether the 

 skin is naturally of loose structure, I do not know, but it would hardly hold 

 together sufficiently to admit of being stuffed. At first no scales were visible, 

 but the scarf-skin having peeled off exposing them, they became detached 

 and fell off in great numbers ; they are largest near the head. I could not 

 find any parasites, with the exception of one Filaria-\ike worm in the 

 abdominal cavity.— W. S. M. D 'Urban (Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter). 



Migrations of the Pilchard.— I have it on thoroughly trustworthy 

 authority that large shoals of Pilchards are met with every year in the deep 

 sea eight and more leagues south round to west of the Scilly Islands during 

 the Mackerel season {i.e., between February and June), and before the 

 inshore Pilchard season commences. The Mackerel drift-nets pick up many 

 of these fish, and from their catches there is reason to believe that the 

 Pilchards in these shoals are females with spawn ready to be shed, and of 

 so large a size as to be capable of being meshed in the mackerel nets. 

 Fortunately these fish make a close-time for themselves. My informant 

 tells me that, diverging from the usual rule of fish bearing ripe roe, they 

 are so dry and tasteless as to be worthless as food. I have never that I can 

 recollect seen a Pilchard with roe in it, and when the fish arrive off our 

 coasts in July they are very fat indeed.— Thomas Cornish (Penzance). 



Large Fishes on the Devonshire Coast.— Tn June a large Sunfish was 

 seen off Dartmouth and Exmouth. On September 18th a male Thrasher 



