60 MISCELLANEA. 
and deposited in creamy layers (delectable sight) between the fib- 
rous flakes that cover his shoulders. The cod-fish himself is very 
fond of this kind of food, and is, I have no doubt, much obliged 
to his northern friends for their want of taste. In the Mediter- 
ranean it appears to be considered a great delicacy and there the 
colour of his coat does not, as with us, banish him from good 
society. This species is not unfrequently brought up on the 
fishing lines at Whitburn and Cullercoats As the cod-fish 
is so great an epicure, and culls for himself delicious morsels from 
depths the keen-eyed naturalist cannot explore, I venture to re- 
commend those who wish to obtain rarities not to fail, when 
ordering cod’s head and shoulder, to have the stomach sent home 
also—although not a delicacy it contains many. Among other 
rarities I thus recently obtained remains of a hermit-crab, which 
Mr. Norman has determined to be Pagurus Thompsont, a species 
hitherto unrecorded from this coast.—Jbid. 
Corystes Cassivellaunus.—I beg to introduce to the notice of 
the club the ancient Briton, Corystes Cassivellaunus. For several 
years I have met with specimens of this masked crab on the sands 
at South Shields. They are generally washed up after storms 
very sparingly, but in perfect condition; I have never met with it 
on any other part of our coast, but it is recorded as occurrimg at 
Scarborough. Very little is known of the private history of this 
strange looking lonely individual, but he is said, by Messrs 
Edwards, Cuming, and Darwin, to have a near relative living on 
the coast of Valparaiso. [See Bell’s British Crustacea. |—Jbid. 
Occurrence of a Sea Pen, new to Britain.—Three specimens of 
a Virgularia were lately got from the deepwater fishing boats, by 
Mr. J. Wright, of the Newcastle Museum, which, on examination, 
I find to be the Virgularia Christi, of Koren and Dannielssen, 
a species which has hitherto only been found on the Norwegian 
coast. The V. Christ is distinguished from the only recorded 
British species, V. mzrabilis, by the polypcells, having clusters of 
calcareous spicula imbedded in their substance, by the absence of 
pinne on the stem, and by the upper portion, gradually ending 
ina graceful curve downwards. The largest specimen obtained 
is seventeen inches in length, and is of a rod-like form, somewhat 
