Fishes. 1215 



Revival of a frozen Frog. — The following fact, which has fallen under my own 

 observation, may possibly throw some light on the common stories we hear about toads, 

 &c. being found in the hearts of trees, and the middle of large blocks of stone. In 

 the winter of 1840, or thereabouts, I found in a large tank, a wretched frog imbedded 

 in the ice which had formed round him to some considerable thickness. I tried to 

 extricate him by breaking the ice, but he proved to be so brittle with the frost, that 

 one of his legs snapped off. When the spring returned, however, our friend revived 

 and swam about minus a leg, " as well as could be expected.'' — L. Hough ; Cotham 

 Hill Villa, West Clifton. 



Eggs of the Flesh-fly deposited in a living Toad. — Last summer, 1845, having 

 noticed a great quantity of dead toads, I was induced to inquire the cause of their 

 death. On the 23rd of August I selected one that seemed unusually inactive : all that 

 I could then see of the disease, after a careful examination, was that one nostril was a 

 little enlarged. I placed the toad in a box inaccessible to small insects, and on open- 

 ing the box three days afterwards I found the frontal sinuses and fleshy parts of the 

 head devoured by larvae of the flesh-fly, after eating the whole of the toad, excepting 

 the skin and bones, they changed into the chrysalis state. I did not count the larvae, 

 but I should say they numbered a hundred. — F. A. Chennell ; Stoke, near Guildford, 

 November llth, 1845. 



Disease amongst Fish. — A disease has attacked the pike and eels in the river Bar- 

 row during the present season, both being frequently found in a dying state on the 

 surface of the water. The pike seem emaciated, and the inside of the mouth presents 

 a fungous ulceration covering the teeth, palate, and tongue, and when the body is 

 opened, the stomach is filled with a green slimy substance. Eels are seen with little 

 apparent life for a day or so, and afterwards dead in shoal water (the place where all 

 wounded or sick fish swim to), the under part of the body from the mouth to the tail, is 

 speckled with blood-red spots, and the mouth is sometimes full of coagulated blood ; 

 however, the fish does not seem to be in bad condition, or to have suffered so long as 

 the pike ; the same kinds of fish in the canal about Monaster-Evan have also suffered 

 from the same malady. — Leinster Express ; September, 1845. 



Spawning of Trout. — In a former number (Zool. 580) I mentioned the fact of the 

 trout in the River Rye, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, being full of spawn of a 

 large size, in the month of March, on the authority of a friend of mine. The same 

 gentleman was there on the 25th of this last September, and found but very few trout 

 at all there, and none of them with either spawn or melt. On his mentioning it to an 

 intelligent farmer there, he at once said, " Oh ! Sir, those are all barren fish, and the 

 others are gone up the small becks (streamlets) to spawn." If this is the case it proves 

 that in that river at any rate, trout continue spawning from September to March; a 

 very long period under any circumstances, for the continuance of a function, the time 

 of which is usually in the lower animals very much more limited. If I can learn any 

 thing further on this subject I will not fail to let you know. — Beverly R. Morris ; 

 York, October 20th, 1845. 



The Father Lasher's capability of living in fresh water. — A few days since in look- 

 ing over the first volume of Mr. Yarrell's ' British Fishes,' I came across the following. 



