3580 Insects. 



over them and into the boat. He survived his introduction to the public about an 

 hour. I found the length of this specimen 4 feet 6 inches ; the depth (not including 

 the fins), 2 feet 5 inches ; the dorsal, 1 foot 6 inches ; and the anal, about an inch 

 less ; making the total depth a little more than 5 feet. Its weight was estimated at 

 200 lbs. The first figure in the memoir of this fish in Mr. Yarrell's ' British Fishes ' 

 (ii. 462), is admirably accurate. That given at p. 464 is not so good. The appear- 

 ance of rays in the tail is not a reflection of nature. That organ is clothed with the 

 common rough integument, with no trace of rays, but only a slightly waved surface, 

 and a crenated edge. The skin was studded with a considerable number (I cannot 

 say how many, for several had been removed, and I think I saw more than a score on 

 one side) of flat, circular, parasitic worms ; I should say indubitably the species de- 

 scribed and figured by Mr. Yarrell in his account of this fish (Tristoma coccineum), 

 but that I can see no propriety in the second appellation ; the specimens being all of a 

 leaden gray hue, mottled with black specks : I have no opportunity here of referring 

 to Rudolphi's work. They were chiefly congregated on the broad cheeks of the fish. 

 This is at least the third specimen of sun-fish that has been taken at Tlfracombe. The 

 seamen say it has the habit of lying horizontally at the surface in the hot sun, with 

 its whole broad side exposed, and, as they suppose, asleep : this individual, however, 

 was upright. The weather was fair, with light breezes, at the time of the capture ; 

 but two days ago there was a very heavy gale from the north-west, which lasted about 

 fifteen hours. Whether there was any connexion between the presence of the fish and 

 the gale, I cannot say ; but it is well to record such circumstances. — P. H. Gosse ; 

 Ilfracotnbe, August 14, 1852. 



Notes on Mr. Stephens' ' Catalogue of Lepidopterous Insects in 

 the Cabinet of the British Museum, (Tortrices).' By Henry 



DoUBLEDAY, Esq. 



I should not have made any remarks upon the Museum Catalogue 

 of Tortrices, lately published, had it not contained a very unfair at- 

 tack upon my friend M. Guenee's admirable work upon the Noctuae. 

 An attempt to describe and arrange every known species of this family 

 is no easy task, and probably some few errors have crept in ; but I 

 unhesitatingly state that no work at all approaching it has ever ap- 

 peared in this country. 



Mr. Stephens charges M. Guenee with not always adopting the old- 

 est name, and gives as instances Nonagria paludicola and Stilbia hy- 

 bridata of Guenee's work, gemmipuncta of Hatchett and anomala of 

 Haworth having the priority ; but these names were published in the 

 ( Transactions ' of the old Entomological Society, a work which M. 

 Guenee could not procure, and which in all probability he has never 

 seen: and the reference to the latter is particularly unfortunate, as 

 Mr. Stephens, with the work before him, gives in his ' Illustrations' 



