192 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



observed as a curious fact that fish wheu they have remained loug in this 

 pond always became blind ; this was supposed by Colonel McDowell to be 

 due to there being insufficient shelter for them from the heat and glare of 

 the sun, owing to the shallowness of the water as compared with the depths 

 of their usual haunts. The various members of the Cod family appear to 

 be very susceptible to disease, especially of the vertebral column, and 

 during the past year, when visiting an aquarium in the north, supplied with 

 pure sea water, I observed several of these fishes blind with one or both 

 eyes. The eyeball in those which were totall}- deprived of vision moved on 

 the blind similar to that on the sound side. In some examples of the 

 Common Cod, Gadus morrhua, the pupil instead of being circular was 

 transversely oval, or even pear-shaped, probably due to an adhesion of the 

 posterior surface of the iris to the lens or its covering. The pupil was 

 either dull or greenish, while in some a film appeared to cover the eye. 

 Without the opportunity of examining these eyes it would be difficult to 

 determine the exact lesion, but I am disposed to think that tha theory 

 advanced at Colonel McDowell's was the correct one. I was lately 

 observing a fine school of Bibs, Gadus Inserts, which had been upwards of 

 eighteen months in the Westminster Aquarium, where the water had not 

 in variably 4 beeu particularly clear, nor had all of it come direct from the sea. 

 Here numerous cases of blindness were not apparent. Before, however, 

 attributing this immunity entirely to the character of the light, we have to 

 consider the relative susceptibility of such in the Common Cod to what 

 obtains in the Bib. The Cod, although hardly a deep-sea fish, resides in 

 localities at one hundred to one hundred and fifty fathoms, while the Bib, 

 although it lives in deep waters during the winter, approaches the shore in 

 spring and summer, consequently does not so invariably remain in dark or 

 semi-dark places as does the Cod. Before offering any opinion on the 

 frequency and probable cause of this blindness among members of the Cod 

 family while in confinement, it would be interesting if managers of various 

 aquariums would let us know whether they have observed such cases in the 

 establishments under their control. If so, the time at which they com- 

 menced as well as the clearness and depth of water in which the fish have 

 been kept. — Francis Day (Cheltenham). 



Rake Fishes on the Cornish Coast.— I have received the Lesser 

 Weever, Trachmus vipera, from a new locality. This is the first specimen 

 I have ever seen, although I have heard of it as occurring in Pra-Sand in 

 Mount's Bay, and in Hayle Sand. This specimen was taken out of some 

 hard lug-sand just westward of Laregan Bridge, Penzance. I have a«ain 

 received a Dorse, Gadus callarius, taken in Mount's Bay. This specimen 

 was sent to me as a present by the fisherman who caught it, and who 

 considered it to be a Cod in very fine condition. I have also obtained a 



