NOTES AND QUERIES. 77 
ducks, one much darker in colour than the other, which was also con- 
siderably smaller ; whether females of spectabilis or not it is impossible to 
say; they may have been only the Common Eider, S. mollissima. I 
exhibited this bird in the flesh at a meeting of the Birmingham Natural 
History Society on April 28th, 1885. The King Hider has been once pre- 
viously obtained at the Farnes, one, formerly in the collection of F. Raine, 
of Durham, having been shot there November 13th, 1873,—R. W. Cuase 
(Edgbaston, Birmingham). 
FISHES. 
Sturgeon and Sting Ray at Hastings.— During the month of November 
last a large Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) and a Sting Ray (Raia pastinaca) were 
caught by some fishermen of Hastings. The Sturgeon was taken in a 
draw-net off Rye; its length was six feet, and its weight ninety pounds. 
The dorsal plates were very pointed and prominent.—F. V. THEOBALD 
(Kingston). 
MOLLUSCA. 
A new List of British Marine Shells.—We have received a list of 
‘British Marine Shells, comprising those of the Brachiopoda and Mollusca 
(proper),’ which has been compiled by Mr. A. Somerville, B.Sc., F.L.S. 
The arrangement followed is that of Gwyn Jeffrey’s ‘ British Conchology,’ 
and the list, so far as we have followed it (to the end of the Bivalves), 
appears to be almost a literal transcript from that work of the families, genera, 
and species, both in regard to their sequence and the names applied to 
them. The object of this catalogue, we presume, is to furnish collectors 
with a check-list, in which they can see at a glance the extent of any genus, 
or mark off on it such species as they possess or may still desire for their 
collections. For this purpose it will doubtless be found useful, and, had it 
been printed on one side of the paper only, and that white instead of tinted, 
it might also have been utilised for labelling. We have only so far noticed 
one ovission from Gwyn Jeffrey’s work, namely, Ne@ra rostrata; but we 
do not find that Mr. Somerville has included the new species described by 
that author from the ‘ Lightning’ and ‘ Porcupine’ Expeditions. Some of 
these species were dredged off the north of the Hebrides and the west of 
Treland, and have as much claim to be considered British as several which 
are quoted in the list as only known from the Shetland Islands and other 
remote parts of the British Seas. One or two alterations might be 
suggested in case a second edition of the List should be published. For 
instance, it has been shown by Stoliczka and others that the term Pelecypoda 
has priority over Lamellibranchiata, and Philipsson (not Retzius) should be 
regarded as the author of Crania, as well as of Unio (vide Brit. Conch. vol. i. 
p- 31). We would also point out that some of the compiler’s names might 
be differently abbreviated, for as they now stand they are too indefinite. 
