28 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
I hear that several others were obtained on the Kast Coast further north. 
From the same source I also had a Serin Finch, Serinus hortulanus, shot in 
the Apollo Gardens, Yarmouth, June 14th. Unfortunately the specimen 
was so riddled with shot that proper identificatiou of the sex was impossible, 
but from the plumage it was no doubt a male. This, I believe, is the first 
occurrence of this species in Norfolk, and will be a welcome addition to 
the already rich avifauna of that county.—R. W. Cuasre (Edgbaston, 
Birmingham). 
FISHES. 
Habits of the Holibut.— On my passage down the coast of Norway 
last autumn we put in (among the numerous other places), on the morning 
of October 15th, to Stoksund (about N. lat. 64° 5’). This little station is 
completely land-locked, and the sea was as smooth as a mill-pond, without 
the slightest ripple. Presently the evenness of the surface was broken by 
the nose of a large fish appearing above it, and then, with a splash, 
appeared an enormous tail. This was continually repeated, and by degrees 
we made out that there were two noses and two tails, and that they belonged 
to two Holibuts (one being very large). They swam close past us, so that 
we saw a good deal of them; they appeared to be playing, much as two 
Seals or Otters might do, and enjoying the sunshine, the first we had had 
for ten days. This habit of the Holibut to come up from the depths with 
which one usually associates them (we were in twenty fathoms water at the 
time) was well known to such of the ship’s company as were old fishing 
hands, but was a startling novelty to the purely sailor portion, as it was to 
myself, and will be, I think, to many readers of ‘The Zoologist.'.—A. H. 
Cocks (Great Marlow). 
[The Holibut, Hippoglossus vulgaris, is the largest of the family of Flat- 
fishes. It is rarely that one more than five feet long reaches the London 
market, but one sent to Edinburgh from the Isle of Man weighed 820 lbs., 
and measured 7 ft. 6in. by 3 ft. 6in. On the coasts of Iceland, Green- 
land, and Newfoundland they attain a much larger size, and specimens 
have been occasionally captured which reached 20 ft. in length. On the 
Norwegian coast the fishery is carried on in spring when the nights are 
clear, so that the fish may be seen on the bottom.—Eb.] 
Food of the Rays.—All the Rays are constantly found to feed much © 
on sand-eels whenever they can obtain them, and on the flowing tide come 
into quite shallow water in quest of them ou the flat sandy beaches all 
round the coast, constantly frequented by sand-eels in more or less abun- 
dance. On one occasion, having baited a trot or long-line with sand-eels, 
and shot it at low water on the sands of Whitsand Bay, six miles from 
Plymouth, out of thirty-eight hooks I found at the next low water eleven 
hooks occupied by Rays of good size, making altogether so considerable a 
weight that I found it more convenient to send down a horse and sledge-box 
