Fishes. 1419 



pid, since it will even mistake your finger for a bait and unconscious 

 of danger will attempt to bite. It deposits its ova on the upper sur- 

 face of small caverns in the rocks, a particular description of which 

 has already appeared in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 798). 



Butterfly Fish, Blennius ocellarius. A single specimen of this fish 

 was taken by a trawl-net in 1845, but the spot on the first dorsal fin 

 was so obscure as scarcely to be noticed. 



Crested Blenny, Blennius Yarrellii of Valenciennes. A single spe- 

 cimen only has been taken in the district of the Land's End. But it 

 has been taken so frequently in other parts of South Cornwall, that 

 its rarity here arises from the limited search I have been able 

 to make for it. 



Butter Fish, Murenoides guttata. (Lacepede). This fish is called 

 butter-fish, I suppose from its soft and unctuous feel. It is a very 

 pretty fish, and very elegantly mottled. It is occasionally found in 

 pools, it swims rapidly and is somewhat difficult to catch. Its colour 

 is a brownish purple. 



R. Q. Couch. 



Penzance, Cornwall. 



(To be continued). 



Large-sized Jack. — In the early part of last week, a fish of the above kind, of 

 arge dimensions and singularly fine proportions, weighing fifteen pounds and a half, 

 was to be seen in the shop of Mr. Barnes, fishmonger, Capuchin-lane. The fish was 

 caught in the Lug, not far from this city. — Hereford Journal, April 22rd, 1846. 



Huge Sturgeon in the Wye. — On Sunday evening last about sunset, as James Pos- 

 tans was angling in the river Wye at the Weir, five miles above Hereford, he observed 

 something quietly basking in the water, which he at first took to be a salmon, but fur- 

 ther observation convinced him that he had lighted upon a monster of the deep such as 

 was never before seen in these parts. He struck it with his rod, which produced little 

 effect, and equally unsuccessful was the effort to seize it by a kind of sail which was 

 elevated above the water. At last after a chase of half an hour, Postans inflicted in 

 succession two deep wounds with a pocket-knife which he carried with him, but still 

 the creature evinced no disposition to give in. During the struggle which took place 

 in the ford, which was about knee-deep, sometimes the man was uppermost and some- 

 times the fish. The biped foe, however, though no little astonished and somewhat 

 daunted, inserted his hand into one of the gashes towards the tail, from which the crim- 

 son tide flowed copiously, and was at last enabled to land his prize, which did not fi- 

 nally give up the ghost till eleven o'clock at night. It proved to be a Koyal Sturgeon, 

 of the extraordinary length of eight feet six inches, girth three feet, and weight one 

 hundred and eighty-two pounds ! A fish of such dimensions was never before cap- 

 tured so far up the Wye, and the wonder how it came there can only be explained by 

 the supposition that it was washed up the river by the tide of the Severn at Chepstow, 



