Birds. — Fishes. 3599 



the year may be considered 82°, the same as at Para. The few Eu- 

 ropeans travelling there, enjoy robust health. Life has but few cares; 

 a spacious mud hut, whitewashed, and thatched with palm-leaves, each 

 family constructs for itself; the rivers teem with turtle and fish, the 

 forests with delicious fruits, and a small clearing, or even the earthy 

 river's edge when the waters decline, yields sufficient mandioca root 

 for the year's consumption at the cost of a few days' labour. But the 

 facility of living, and the want of ambition, cause a laxity of morals 

 fatal to the advancement of the people and the development of the 

 resources of the country. Tn the hands of the Anglo-Saxons, at some 

 future day, what a wealthy country it may become ! 



Henry Walter Bates. 



Note on an unusual occurrence of the Red-breasted Merganser. — The red-breasted 

 merganser is only found in Norfolk and Suffolk as a winter visitor, and the adult 

 males are seldom obtained but in severe seasons : it may, therefore, be worth recording 

 that one of these birds, in full adult male plumage, was seen at Lowestoft during the 

 third week of July, in the present year. When seen, the bird was flying low, and was 

 passing southward over the Denes which adjoin a portion of the beach at that part of 

 the coast lying a little to the north of the town of Lowestoft. — J. H. Gurney ; Easton, 

 Norfolk, August 25, 1852. 



Note on the Rev. G. Gordons List of Moray Fishes (Zool. 2456, 3480).— In the 

 careful and elaborate list of the fishes of the Moray Firth, by the Rev. G. Gordon, 

 published in the ' Zoologist ' for May and June, the author has stated the numbers of 

 species from his list which he believes to have been found in Orkney and Shetland. 

 His numbers are not quite accurate, as instead of 70, those found amount to 75. The 

 total number of species in these islands, also, amounts to 102, instead of 97. This list 

 would include many of his rarer species, such as Trachypterus Vogmarus, Gobius uni- 

 punctatus, Lepidogaster bimaculatus, &c. The occurrence of many of these has not 

 yet been published, so that Mr. Gordon could not have had any opportunity of obtain- 

 ing correct information ; but I hope that ere long this deficiency will be supplied. — 

 Wm. Balfour Baikie, M.D. ; Haslar, July 24, 1852. 



Note on a Variety of the Broad-nosed Eel. — A broad-nosed eel, of 18 oz. in weight, 

 was taken this week from some mud under a brick archway of a water-course, at Lex- 

 ham, in this county, which, instead of being the usual colour, was of a bright gamboge 

 yellow, darkest and brightest on the back and tail, and paler on the sides and head. 

 The ouly part of the fish which did not partake of this golden hue was the usual sil- 

 very line between the throat and the vent. I think the yellow was quite as clear and 

 as bright as that of the gemmeous dragonet, and perhaps even more so. — J. H. Gur- 

 ney ; Easton, Norfolk, August 7, 1852. 



