NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 357 



I am not ichthyologist enough to give the proper name 

 of this gorgeous little beauty, which may or may not be 

 identical with that of the Islands of Fiji. Miss Gordon- 

 Cumming's description of the many beautiful fishes to be 

 met with on the coral reef of Fiji reminds me very closely 

 of my own experience in the Bermudas. Let us hope that 

 further research may throw additional light upon this 

 interesting subject. 



Nomeus gronovii (Goode's list.) A rare fish — no Bermuda 

 name. This little fish was caught in Hamilton Water in 

 May, 1847, and sent by Mr. Marriott to Colonel Drummond- 

 Hay, who made a beautiful drawing of it. 



The Spotted Thread Herring {Opisthronema thrissd) 

 Goode's list, CIiciIcbssus signifer of De Kay. This fish 

 Colonel Drummond-Hay has taken in considerable num- 

 bers in St. Catherine's Bay, on the north-east shore of St. 

 George's. Length about ten inches. One ray about half 

 the length of the fish itself, extends from the termination 

 of the dorsal fin, in a curve towards the tail. This pecu- 

 liarity, from its resemblance to a thread, has given rise to 

 the name of the fish. 



April i$(A, 1872. — Received a letter this day from my 

 friend, John Mathew Jones, dated from the Bermudas, the 

 26th ultimo, in which he exultingly announces the taking 

 of a "Pelagic fish-nest" from floating gulf-weed thrown up 

 on the south shore of those islands. The wonderful dis- 

 covery of one of these nests by Professor Agissiz, while on 

 a recent voyage to the West Indies, has been going the 

 round of the American papers, and my friend Jones is the 

 first English naturalist who has ever taken or described 



