Reptiles — Fishes. 1879 



Habits of the Tern. — " The terns which breed in the islands on a loch in the woods 

 of Altyre, fully five miles in a straight line from where they fish, fly up to their young 

 with every sand-eel they catch. I have seen them fly backwards and forwards in this 

 way for hours together, apparently bringing the whole of their food from the sea, not- 

 withstanding the distance ; their light body and long swallow-like wings make this 

 long flight to and fro less fatiguing to the tern than it would be to almost any other 

 bird." — « Wild Sports in the Highlands? p. 201. 



Living Toad imprisoned in Stone. — A few days ago two labourers, employed at a 

 stone quarry at Frodingham, near Brigg, Lincolnshire, found, at a depth of five feet 

 below the surface of the ground, and between two blocks of stone (lias), a living toad : 

 the interstice between the stones was filled with yellow clay, and there did not appear 

 the least possible aperture by which anything could have passed. — E. Peacock. 



Occurrence of the Natterjack at Selborne. — Observing, a few days ago, a toad 

 poking his nose from under a stone on the peach border in my garden, I took him up, 

 and found him to be the natterjack (Bufo calamita). I replaced him, and he continued 

 to inhabit the same retreat for some days, until he was fairly " burnt out " by the heat 

 of the sun. It was a strange place for a beast of this description to choose for his 

 hiding-place, under a wall exposed without shelter to the direct south, in such weather 

 as this : very different from the 



" Toad that under the cold stone 

 Days and nights has thirty-one ! " 

 This is another addition to our local fauna. — Thomas Bell ; Selborne, July 12, 1847. 



Young of the Natterjack. — At a recent meeting of the Surrey Natural-History So- 

 ciety, Mr. Henry Bull, of Godalming, exhibited specimens of the young of the nat- 

 terjack, found by himself on Shalford Common, where this reptile is abundant. 



Occurrence of the Argentine (Scopelus borealis) at Killiney Bay. — " A specimen of 

 this extremely beautiful little fish was found in a dying state on the beach at Killiney 

 Bay, near Dublin, by Professor Oldham, on the 11th of March, 1847. It was shown 

 to me on the following morning in Dublin by that gentleman, who subsequently de- 

 posited it in the Museum of Trinity College. 



** This specimen is 2^ inches in total length, and so fully agrees with that described 

 and figured by Dr. W. B. Clarke, in the second volume of Charlesworth's ' Magazine 

 of Natural History ' (1838), as to render any description unnecessary. It having been 

 dried up before being transferred to spirits, a positive enumeration of the rays in the 

 fins is impracticable, but they are in all the fins about the number given by Dr. Clarke : 

 the anal fin, however, extends considerably farther along the body (for 4| lines) than 

 represented in his figure, although it there appears as extending to twice the length 

 that it does in Pennant's fish. It commences in the specimen under examination, as 



