6994 Fishes. 



and sellocks, neither have flounder or skate nets drawn there inclosed a sail fluke. It 

 seldom comes to the shore earlier than October or later than April, though it is often 

 driven by storms on the beach, entangled among sea-weed. The great supply is, how- 

 ever, obtained in the following manner. In the winter and early spring a pair of black- 

 headed gulls take possession of the Bay, drive away all interlopers, and may be seen 

 at daybreak every morning beating from side to side on the wing, and never both in 

 one place, except in the act of crossing as they pass. The sail fluke skims the ridge 

 of the wave towards the shore with its tail raised over its back, and when the wave 

 recedes is left on the sand, into which it burrows so suddenly and completely that 

 though I have watclied its approach, only once have I succeeded in finding its burrow. 

 The gull, however, has a surer eye, and, casting like a hawk, pounces on the fluke, 

 from which by one stroke of his bill it extracts the liver. If not disturbed the gull no 

 sooner gorges this luscious morsel th^n it commeiices dragging the fish to some out- 

 lying rock, where he and his consort may discuss it at leisure. By robbing the black- 

 backs I have had the house supplied daily with this excellent fish in weather during 

 which no fishing-boat could put to sea. Close to the beach of South B;iy a stone 

 wall has been raised to shelter the crops from the sea spray. Behind this we posted a 

 smart lad, who kept his eye on the soaring gulls. The moment one of the birds made 

 its well-known swoop, the boy rushed to the sea-strand, shouting with all his might. 

 He was usually in time to scare the gull away and secure the fluke, but in almost every 

 case with its liver torn out. If the gull by chance succeeded in carrying his prey 

 off to the rock, he and his partner set up a triumphant cackling, as if deriding the dis- 

 appointed lad. Seals often pursue these flukes into the Bay, and frequently leave 

 serviceable morsels unconsumed. The sail fluke exhibits its gambols most frequently 

 before a storm, or when a thaw succeeds a frost. It is the most delicious fish of our 

 seas, but loses its flavour by a day's keeping." — Sir John Richardson, in 2nd Supplement 

 to ' Yarrell's British Fishes,' February 19, 1849. 



[At present the talented describer of this new British fluke has not had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining a specimen, and does not appear to feel much confidence that the 

 species is absolutely new to Science. — E, iV.]. 



Note on Pyrgoma, a Parasitic Cirripede. — It is well known that Pyrgoma 

 anglicum, a little sessile barnacle, is always found parasitically seated upon the mar- 

 gin of the corallum of certain Caryophylliacea. In my account of Caryophyllia 

 Smithii (' Actinol. Brit.' p. 315), I have observed that "two are sometimes found on 

 the same coral,'' But I have just been presented, through the kindness of Mrs. 

 Thynne, of Regent's Park, with specimens of the corallum of this species, one of which 

 is crowned with no fewer than nine, the other with eleven, of the little Pyrgomata. 

 The appearance of the ovate barnacles, each with its orifice crowded all round the 

 edge of the coral, is exceedingly curious and novel. — P. H. Gosse ; Torquay, 

 March 31, 1860. 



