338 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



In Dr. Fleming's History of British Animals, p. 145, it is 

 stated that "a Passenger Pigeon, Coluniba migratoria, Wil., was 

 shot, while perched on a wall in the neighbourhood of a Pigeon 

 house at Westhall, in the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire, 31st 

 Dec, 1825. The feathers were quite fresh and entire, like those 

 of a wild bird." 



"With regard to the Mulgrave bird it is very different, for the 

 quill feathers in the wings are much worn and broken, and on 

 the forehead above the bill they are apparently worn off to the 

 skull, as though the bird had been trying to get out of a cage or 

 some other enclosure, therefore I cannot come to any other con- 

 elusion than that this specimen, a female, has made its escape 

 froni confinement. 



If we are to form an opinion of the vast numbers of this bird 

 in its own country, from the account given by Audubon of these 

 Pigeons at one of their roosting places, it must be the most pro- 

 lific of the feathered tribe ever heard of. 



The Mulgrave specimen will shortly be placed in the collection 

 of the Eight Honourable Earl Eavensworth. — John Hancock, 20th 

 November, 1876. 



On the Occurrence of the Eagle Bay [Mijliobatu Aquila, Cuv.) off 

 Culler coats. — A fine specimen of this rare visitant to the British 

 seas was taken on November 5th, 1875, about six miles off Cul- 

 lercoats, by G. Stocks, a fisherman at that place. The specimen 

 is a female, and is of a rhomboid form, with the head very pro- 

 minent, and a blunt rounded snout, which gives it very much the 

 appearance of a large toad. The eyes are very prominent on the 

 sides of the head, and there is a deepish hollow between them. 

 The spiracles are placed immediately behind the eyes. The body 

 is thickest just behind the head, and it slopes away to the root 

 of the tail, and also to the sides, and on to the tips of the large 

 pectoral fins, forming a ridge down the centre of the back. The 

 tail is long and whip-like in form, with a serrated spine placed 

 a short way from its root. The large pectoral fins are wing like, 

 and of a triangular form, slightly convex in front and concave 

 behind; they take their rise just behind the eyes, and extend 



