3712 Fishes. 



" Sporting by Steam. — On Wednesday, September 29, as the express train of the 

 Morayshire Railway was crossing the Loch of Spynie, the funnel of the engine struck 

 and killed a bird of the species called the northern diver, which was flying: with a fish 

 in its bill. On the bird being secured, it was found to measure from the tip of the 

 tail to the beak 3 feet, and from wing to wing 4 feet 4 inches. Its prey was of goodly 

 size, being nearly 10 inches in length.'' — * Elgin Courant,' October 1, 1852. 



[I have seen the animals above alluded to. They are the great cormorant (Pha- 

 lacrocorax Carbo), principally known as " The Scarf," and a flounder (Platessa Flesus), 

 most likely from the locality. The bird is well stuffed and set up by the engine-dri- 

 ver as a trophy ; the fish is replaced in the position in which it was first seen, with 

 little more than the tail visible, between the extended mandibles of the cormorant, so 

 that the species could not with certainty be determined at a glance. — G. Gordon ; 

 Birnie, by Elgin, October, 1852.] 



Occurrence of the Gannet (Sula Bassana) in Cambridgeshire. — A fine adult spe- 

 cimen of this bird was shot last week in Fulbourn Fields, Cambridgeshire. — Fredk. 

 Bond ; Kingsbury, September 26, 1852. 



Occurrence of the Egyptian Goose (Chenalopex Egyptiacus, Gould) in Cambridge- 

 shire. — A fine adult specimen of this bird was likewise shot last week in Fulbourn 

 Fields* It might have escaped from some place, but he was in the most beautiful 

 and perfect condition, and showed no marks of having been in confinement.— Id. 



Singular Capture of the Porbeagle Shark, (Lamna Cornubica, Flem.) — On the 

 morning of Friday, October 15, two of these huge denizens of the deep were killed in 

 the Moray Firth — one in Lossiemouth Bay, and the other off Port Gordon, some ten 

 or twelve miles distant from each other. They were caught much about the same 

 hour, and what is most singular, by the same means, namely, by no stronger engine 

 than the common haddock-line. These sharks, which in neither locality were seen to 

 be accompanied by others of the same species, had most likely been snatching some of 

 the fish from the hooks for their breakfast, and in their evolutions had got a fold or 

 two of the line twisted round their tails, which, from their consistence and construc- 

 tion, are most likely to be thus entangled. To the no little amazement of the fisher- 

 men, they saw their buoys flitting about and disappearing in a style which no drifting 

 of the boat or fouling of the line on the bottom could account for. By and by they 

 became aware that some large animal was attached to the frail thread — for a thread 

 it was compared with the strength of the fish ; and in both cases there were, as in 

 angling with a large salmon, much play and sport, and a long run, which at last ex- 

 hausted the sharks, when they were pulled by the tail to the boats. The Port Gordon 

 specimen measured 7 feet 2 inches in length, and 4 feet 2 inches in girth at the thick- 

 est part. It was soon cut up, and, save some of the fins and the back-bone, was spee- 

 dily entombed in the mussel-midden, whence one side was caused to be excavated for 

 identification of the species some days afterwards. The one got in Lossiemouth Bay 

 was exhibited in Elgin and in some of the adjacent towns. It measured a foot more 

 in length than the other, and was in all respects the larger animal of the two. — Geo. 

 Gordon ; Manse of Birnie, by Elgin, N. B., November 8, 1852. 



