1980 Fishes. 



The list of the fish ascertained, as belonging to the Land's End, is 

 now brought to a close. The notes have extended to a greater length 

 than was at first intended, and yet they have been greatly abridged 

 lest I should overstep the bounds at the service of such investigations. 

 From the peculiar and extreme western position of the district, and 

 from its being almost surrounded by water, the opportunities for 

 ichthyological investigations are great, and such as would interest ob- 

 servers in other parts of the kingdom ; it is these considerations alone 

 that tempted me to exceed the bounds formerly intended for these 

 notes. 



R. Q. Couch. 

 Penzance. 



P.S. On the Eggpurse and Embryo of a Species of Myliobatis, by 

 Jonathan Couch, Esq., F.L.S., fyc. — Early in the month of August of 

 last year (1845), Mr. Peach was so obliging as to send me a purse or 

 case of the ovum, of what appeared to be a species of rayfish, such as 

 I had never seen before, and which he had obtained from a trawl 

 vessel, that had been fishing, a few miles south of Fowey, in 

 Cornwall. 



So little is known of the distinctions of these egg-cases so charac- 

 teristic of the rays and some kinds of sharks, that it is probable no 

 museum in Europe will be found to contain specimens of even a ma- 

 jority of them ; and as the one or two eminent naturalists who have 

 had an opportunity of examining the curious structure of the surface 

 of this specimen were unable to refer it to any of the known cartilagi- 

 nous fishes, and the accident of finding such a one on a beach may 

 be the only proof of the probable presence of the parent, I have 

 thought it well to give a minute description. 



The length of the case was 6^- inches; the breadth 4f inches; 

 length of the processes at the anterior angles 2j inches, flat, or thin, 

 and tapering to their terminations ; but as the anterior border of the 

 case is concave, these tendrils appear simply as elongations of its sur- 

 face. The posterior margin is straight; and consequently the origin 

 of the tendrils is better marked. They are narrower than the anterior; 

 and end in a thin and slender cord, their length being l\ inches. I 

 have seen the purse or case of the common skate (R: batis) much 

 longer than this, but in no instance more than two-thirds as wide ; and 

 consequently in proportion this is the widest of any. The longer ten- 

 drils also exceed in length those of any of the rays that I have seen ; 

 though they yield to those of the common oviparous shark (Scyllium 



