24 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The Digestive Organs of the Pilchard. — While visiting the 

 S.W. coast of England during the past autumn, the food of the Pilchard, 

 Clupea pllchardus, and the anatomy of its digestive canal, claimed my 

 attention. The fishes upon which my investigations were first made come 

 inshore of an evening in order to obtain food ; so, after sundown, nets were 

 shot between their feeding grounds and the deep sea to intercept their 

 return. On opening one of these fishes one sees the three separate 

 portions of the stomach ; anteriorly the oesophageal going from the mouth 

 to the sac-like second or cardiac . divisiou ; while the pyloric part passes 

 laterally from between the two first portions to the commencement of the 

 small intestines, and appears Solid to the touch. On slitting them up 

 we see, on the inner surface of the oesophageal portion, several rows of large 

 proven tricular glands, behind which the mucous membrane is plicated into 

 lougitudinal or slightly oblique folds : these are interrupted opposite the 

 opening into the pyloric portion, but reappear iu the cardiac part. The 

 walls of the pyloric portion are at least twice as thick as those at any other 

 part of the stomach, while the mucous membrane is densely studded with 

 round but small glandular prominences. In every instance, out of hundreds 

 examined, this division of the stomach was distended by what may be 

 likened to a sausage-shaped mass, consisting of an outer covering formed by 

 secretion from the glandular mucous membrane, which was disteuded by the 

 remains of Crustacea in their zoea-form, while similar food was likewise 

 present in the cardiac portion of the stomach, but not enveloped by any 

 unorganised membrane. Having subsequently received some more examples 

 which were not so distended with food, still this remarkable membrane, 

 hitherto, as I believe, unnoticed among fish, was found. Weber, iu 1821), 

 pointed out that the air-bladder of the Herring possessed a posterior opening 

 into the progenital canal, which I likewise found to be the case in the 

 Pilchard and in the common Sprat. — Francis Day (Cheltenham). 



Rare Star-fishes on the Coast of Aberdeen. — On the 10th of 

 May last one of my fisher friends brought me a fine specimen of Strichaster 

 rosea; and in June a specimen of Astronyx loveni was brought to land by 

 one of our "great line" fishers. As both the above were new to me — the 

 former described by Forbes as " Cribella rosea" the other uot known when 

 he wrote — I took both to London, and, through the kindness of Professor 

 Jeffery Bell, had them identified from specimens in the British Museum. 

 Astronyx loveni was first described by Miller and Loschell in 1801, and the 

 only British specimen known apart from mine was described by John A. 

 Stewart of New College, Edinburgh. The dimensions of the one now 

 referred to are as follows : — Longest ray, part of which is wanting, 18 in. 

 long ; second and third, also imperfect, 14 and 15 in. respectively ; fourth, 

 perfect, 15| in. Of the fifth ouly Hi in. remain. On the upper side of the 



