Fishes— 3IoUusks. 6861 



the feet fuscous-re'L When first obtained the circles round tlie eyes were red. Length 

 25 inches; wings 18 inches 6 lines ; tarsi 3 inches ; bare part of tbi;;h 1 inch 9 lines; 

 bill from gape 3f inches, from forehead 2 inches 6 lines. Pallas informs us that tliis 

 bird, when flying, emits a hoarse, raven-like cry of" kou, kou." He further says that 

 it lays its eggs on the bare sand, without the least preparation of a nest: they are in 

 shape an oblong-oval, marked with frequent brown spots, with some paler ones inter- 

 mixed. It is known on the borders of the Caspian Sea by the name of " Rybak " or 

 *' Gluchar," and by the Tartars as " Charahalta."— i^. iV. L. Ross ; Topsham, Novem- 

 ber 24, '[Q59.— [Obliging hj communicated by G. R. Grag, Esq.'] 



Notes of the third Capture of Scymnus horealis (Flem.) off the Scottish Coast. — 

 The Scymnus borealis (ihe Squalus Carcharias of Miiller's ' Prodomus ' and Fabricius' 

 ' Historia Naturalis Green landiae,' or, as it is better known to whalers, the " Greenland 

 shark ") though common in the Arctic regions, is a rare fish in the British seas. Pro- 

 fessor Fleming mentions that he was in possession of the jaws of one— presented to him 

 by the late Mr. Simmonds — which was caught in his piesence in the Pentland Firth, 

 in 1803; and that Mr, Edmonstone witnessed one 13A feet long, which was found 

 dead in Burra Firth, Uist, July, 1824. Mr. Yarrell notices one which was caught olf 

 the coast of Durham, in April, 1840, and is now in the University Museum of that 

 city. The present specimen was caught on the morning of the 2nd of May, 1859, in 

 the Firth of Forth, by some of the Newhaven Fishermen, having primarily got entangled 

 in their fishing lines. It was about 10 feet long, and was brought up to the University, 

 in the Museum of which Institution it will be deposited. On being^dissected its large 

 stomach was found to be very full and distended with the morning meal, though it is 

 represented by Scoresby and others to be a mild member of a proverbially voracious 

 family. Thus, so far as I am able to learn, this is only the fourth capture on record 

 in the British seas, though it may in aU probal)ility have occurred oftener in remote 

 situations without meeting tlie prying eye of the zoologist;' — the third off the Scottish 

 coast, and the first in the Firth of Forth. It may, therefore, with great justice be 

 ranked as one of the rarest of those fishes which, though not inhabitants, except in rare 

 occasions, of our seas, have yet been classed among its already overburdened Fauna. — 

 Robert Brown; Edinburgh, January li, 1860. 



Occurrence of Octopus vulgaris at Bahbicomhe. — I have just oblnined a fine 

 specimen of the ponlj'e {Octopus vulgaris), on Bahbicomhe beach, where it had 

 been left by this morning's tide. It was dead, but had evidently been alive only a few 

 hours before. Its colour was white, marbled on the dorsal surface of sac, head and 

 arms with red-brown. Its dimensions weie as follows: — Length of one arm from 

 mouth, 25 inches ; length of sac, ventral side 5^ inches, width 4h inches, toi;al length 

 34 inches. I attempted to count the number of suckers on one arm, and made out 

 about 108 pairs, but one-third of these could be eiiumerated only by the aid of a lens, 

 and on the terminal portion (about an inch) I could no longer separate them even 

 with that aid. Fleming (Brit. Anim. p. 253) says of this species, " with about tivo 240 

 suckers," by which odd expression I should have supposed he meant 240 pairs, or else 



