4876 Notices of New Books. 



the species of fishes, he expresses his belief that some of the results 

 may be of useful application, especially those given in the second and 

 third sections ; inferring, that as in moist air, the vitality of the ova is 

 capable of being long sustained, they may, during rain or fog, be con- 

 veyed from one river or lake to another, adhering to some part of an 

 animal, such as a heron or otter, and also during a time of snow or 

 frost; and further, that other of the results may be useful towards 

 determining the fittest age of ova for transport for the purpose of 

 stocking rivers, and likewise as a help to explain the habitats, and 

 some of the habits of the migratory species." 



The following note by Mr. Hogg on the fish lately stranded in Tees 

 Bay is from the Proceedings of the Linnean Society : — 



" Since my return home, I have had an opportunity of learning more 

 particularly respecting the large fish which was stranded last September 

 in the Tees Bay ; and I have now not the least doubt that it was a 

 common tunny, and that too of a large size. One of the fishermen who 

 had seen the fish, on cutting it said — the flesh looked like highly-salted 

 bacon, i.e. red with salt or saltpetre. He described it in size as * being 

 pretty well on to 60 stone, 1 which, at 8 lbs. to the stone (meat weight), 

 would give 480 tbs. The only freshly-killed tunny I ever saw was at 

 Palermo ; it was a good-sized fish, and was carried on the shoulders of 

 two strong fishermen, the one walking a few feet before the other. 

 Pennant describes, in his ' Brit. Zool.' (edit. 1812), vol. iii. p. 362, one 

 which was caught at Inverary in 1769 as weighing 460 tbs. This then 

 would probably be somewhat less than the Tees fish ; and this is 

 further shown by the following fact :-— Pennant says the tail ' measured 

 2 feet 7 inches between tip and tip' of its crescent-form. I yesterday 

 measured the tail of the Tees fish, which gave 2 feet 8j inches from tip 

 to tip, thus having 1 J inch more in the width of the crescent-tail than 

 Pennant's, and consequently most likely it was the larger of the two. 

 The fisherman had well preserved the tail, and it presents a beautiful 

 specimen of a crescent, and very perfect, each half corresponding in a 

 very accurate manner with the other. It is covered with a thick, nearly 

 black skin, and quite smooth. I counted the caudal rays, and at first 

 I made nineteen on one side and eighteen on the other ; but on re- 

 counting them I am more satisfied that they are equal, i.e. eighteen on 

 each side or in each half. Between them I noticed most distinctly * a 

 cartilaginous keel between the sides of the tail,' as described by Cuvier 

 in his generic characters of his genus Thynnus." 



