Fishes. 2929 



run down by a fishing-boat, and a boat-hook having been struck into it, to detain it, as 

 at the capture of the ^hippopotamus, a rope was got under it, and it was hauled on 

 board, but not until it had several times nearly upset the boat by plurjging. It mea- 

 sured 7 feet 9 inches in length, and 8£ feet from the tip of the dorsal to the tip of the 

 anal fin. The fish was much infested with parasites, similar to those figured by Mr. 

 Yarrell as a vignette to his account of this species. It may perhaps be worth observ- 

 ing that we had two or three cloudless and extremely hot days at Torquay immediately 

 preceding June 25th, when the animal was taken. — Id. 



Capture of the Sunfish (Orthogariscus Mola) at Dover. — As no record of the ap- 

 pearance of this peculiar creature on this part of the coast has found its way to the 

 ' Zoologist,' it would be as well to state, that a fine and perfect specimen was caught 

 near Dover, towards the latter end of August, and presented to the Dover museum. 

 — W. H. Cordeaux ; Canterbury, September 10, 1850. 



Capture of the Sunfish off" Hastings. — On the 7th inst., a specimen of the short 

 sunfish was captured and brought on shore at Hastings. The captors state that it was 

 very luminous when first seen, and that it moved forwards by rolling over and over. 

 The upper part of the fish hard, rough, and almost black ; the lower part rather sil- 

 very : it measured, probably, two feet in length. The engraving in Yarrell's ' British 

 Fishes' (taken from a stuffed specimen) is too round in profile, the form more nearly 

 approaching to a square. — Alfred Heales ; Stoke Neivington, September 20, 1850. 



[A great number of records of the occurrence of " extraordinary " and " nonde- 

 script" fishes have appeared in the papers during July, August, and September : all of 

 them seem to relate to this well-known and remarkable species, which has visited our 

 shores in greater numbers during the present autumn than on any previous occasion 

 within my remembrance. — E. N.~\. 



Occurrence of the Spanish Mackerel (Scomber Colias) off Brighton. — A number of 

 Spanish mackerel having been caught in a seine, off Brighton, very recently, I had an 

 opportunity of examining some, and comparing one with the figure given in Yarrell's 

 ' British Fishes' (first edition). Unluckily I neglected to take any measurement, but, 

 speaking from recollection, none of the individuals seen were more than a foot 

 long, if so much, and some of them certainly were less. The fish were deeper, or 

 broader, in both head and body, and the skin was less strongly mottled, than is repre- 

 sented by Mr. Yarrell, in whose figure the pectoral and ventral fins are too small, mos* 

 particularly the former, it being remarked that the pectoral fins of the specimen ex- 

 amined bore a great resemblance to those of the flying-fish, being of course very much 

 smaller, but of similar wing-like shape, and very long. In the centre of the posterior 

 edge of the gill-cover was a rather extensive deep black spot, and the interior of the 

 gills was also black. The lateral line, which is more conspicuous than in Mr. Yarrell's 

 plate, commences from the head clear above the pectoral fin, beyond the extremity of 

 which it descends somewhat abruptly below the middle of the side, whence it continues 

 straight to the tail. In Mr. Yarrell's description, a striking peculiarity in the confor- 

 mation of this fish is totally unnoticed, though it is partially represented in the wood- 

 cut. At about two-thirds of the entire length from the nose, in the direction of the 

 lateral mark, begins a line of hard scale plates, at first very slightly projecting in the 

 centre, but gradually rising, until they become a strong, serrated ridge, of which the 

 teeth are sharp, and in depth perhaps about one-tenth of an inch. I quite coincide 

 with the concluding sentence of Mr. Couch's account (' British Fishes', v. i. p. 131). 



