3454 Fishes. 



Occurrence of the Wood Sandpiper at the Land's End. — An adult specimen of this 

 bird was shot at the Land's End a day or two since, and has been preserved by Mr. 

 Vingoe. — Id. 



A List of the Fishes that have been found in the Moray Firth, and' 

 in the Fresh Waters of the Province of Moray.* By the Rev. 

 George Gordon. 



"Fish and Flesh, 1 ' with the addendum of the anomalous "Red- 

 herring," was the good old gastronomic classification of the Animal 

 Kingdom. At a still earlier period, however, the gourmands, if such 

 there were among the aborigines of the British Islands, doubtless had 

 for a length of time almost wholly to depend for the gratification of 

 their palates upon the ferce naturd of the second of these classes — 

 the beasts and birds of the field. The other class — the denizens of 

 the deep, whether fish properly so called, or mollusk, or crustacean — 

 would be despised or neglected by man until he had taken another 

 step towards civilization, and settled down upon the river-banks and 

 ocean-shores. There is now a complete change of place in these two 

 divisions of the animal kingdom, as our resources for food. The wa- 

 ters yield by far the greater proportion of the ferae naturd destined to 

 become the food of man : the land contributing only its venison, its 

 grous, and its wild fowl — in short, its u game," which, even in the 

 most favoured seasons and districts, forms now but a scanty item in 

 the aliment of Britons. Of course the domesticated animals are here 

 not taken into account. It is to the ferce naturd that these remarks 

 apply. And, save a few perch in a pond, or carp in a glass globe, the 

 whole of the finny tribe roam as free to-day, and in their habits are as 

 much ferce naturd, as when the first Celt, or his unknown precursor, 

 crossed the German Ocean, and landed on our shores. Then, being 

 still ferce naturd, the history and the habits of the fishes, even of 

 those species that are the most common fare or the rarest of table 

 dainties, become more congenial food to the mind of the naturalist, 

 than the study of the overgrown and piebald inmates of the farm and 

 poultry-yard. 



Trusting that such notices regarding the occurrence of the species 

 found in well-defined localities will not be unsuitable to the pages of 

 the ' Zoologist ' (which have not been much occupied by this particu- 

 lar department of Natural History), the following list of the fishes as 



* In continuation of" The Fauna of Moray." See ' Zoologist,'' pp. 421, 502, 551. 



