18/9.] OF WESTON-SUPER-MARE. 761 



description, but which I have never seen, called frog-mouthed Eel 

 by the fishermen, from the extraordinary width of its mouth." In 

 August I received two Eels, each 3 feet long, from the Severn, taken 

 on the same day : the head of one is most curiously flattened, pro- 

 bably due to some injury received in its early development : but the 

 fishermen asserted that this example is one of the third variety, pro- 

 bably identical with that termed frog-mouthed Eel by Hastings. Its 

 snout is very broad, lips comparatively thin, and the angle of the 

 mouth below the hind margin of the eye. 



Conger vulgaris, Cuvier. The Conger Eel. 



Small ones are common at Weston ; and many are captured by lads 

 from under stones, where they have sought shelter as the tide 

 ebbed. 



Siphonostoma typhle, Linn. The Broad-nosed Pipefish. 



Syngnathus acus. The Great Pipefish. 



Nerophis ^equoreus. The Ocean Pipefish. 



These fishes have all been recorded from Somersetshire. 



Tetrodon lagocephalus, Linn., or T. pennantii, Yarrell. 



Rather a fine stuffed example, 15 inches long, exists in the 

 Weston Museum. It was purchased from a local bird- and animal- 

 preserver, so is probably a local specimen; but no history is obtainable. 

 If we turn to the records of where this fish has been taken in 

 Great Britain, we find that the British Museum possesses an example 

 from Charmouth in Dorsetshire ; one is recorded from Waterford in 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, a second in the ' Zoologist' for 1853, and a 

 third Irish example at Wexford in 1850; two are recorded from 

 the Orkneys in the ' Zoologist ' for 1853, while many have been 

 taken in Cornwall. Consequently the capture of one in Somersetshire 

 would be no peculiar circumstance. 



Orthagoriscus truncatus, Linn. Oblong Diodon. 

 Has been captured in Somersetshire. 



Orthagoriscus mola, Bl. Schneider. The Sunfish. 



This is said to have been seen off Somersetshire. During the last 

 season, Lord Ducie (August 13th) saw one of these fish in Ballinskellig 

 Bay. I give the following summary from some interesting obser- 

 vations which his Lordship made during a previous season. 



There is no locality in the United Kingdom where the Shorter 

 Sunfish, Orthagoriscus mola, is more frequently seen than off the 

 south-west coast of Ireland ; and Lord Ducie remarks that he has 

 frequently fallen in with them all along the coast from Dungarvan 

 to Valencia. August 1877, a boat's crew from his lordship's yacht 

 returning from long lining fell in with a large one lying on the surface 

 in its usual lazy fashion, the projecting caudal fin describing the 

 segment of a circle in the air, as the unwieldly body rolled with every 



49* 



