580 Mollusks. 



Note on the spawning of Trout, The following fact relating to the spawning of 

 trout in the river Rye, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, which was communicated to 

 me by a friend, who is a keen fisherman, and fond of observing the habits of fishes, 

 may prove interesting to some of the readers of ' The Zoologist.' On the 9th of last 

 March he was fishing in the Rye, near Helmesley, but met with little sport, killing 

 only eleven trout and some grayling. On examining the fish, five of the trout proved 

 to be full of spawn, the grains being about the size of a pin's head, and of course not 

 far from the time of expulsion. Now I always believed that trout spawned in No- 

 vember and December. It has, I believe, been proved that salmon in different rivers 

 spawn at different times, and that these extend over a period of six months. May not 

 the same occur in the trout, which is so nearly related to the salmon ? If so, this 

 would be an instance of a late and not an early spawning. Whether the trout in this 

 river all spawn in the spring, or whether they continue spawning from November till 

 the middle of March, I cannot yet say ; but my friend intends to ascertain the fact 

 this next autumn, and if he succeeds in obtaining any useful information, I will not 

 fail to record it in the pages of * The Zoologist.' I may also mention that when fish- 

 ing again in the Rye on the 29th of March, he found that all the trout had done spawn- 

 ing. I hope some of the readers of ' The Zoologist ' will ascertain in their different 

 localities the extremes of time in which the trout spawns, and if these are recorded, we 

 may then hope to be able to render certain, what is now involved in considerable ob- 

 scurity.— Beverley R. Morris, A.B., M.D. ; York, May 2, 1844. 



Note on the capture of a Sturgeon near Great Yarmouth. A fine sturgeon was taken 

 this morning in Breydon, in a net, by a man who was fishing for smelts. When I saw 

 it, it was nearly packed up, to be sent to London, and I consequently could obtain 

 none of the dimensions but the length, which was six feet. — Wm. R. Fisher ; Great 

 Yarmouth, April 19, 1844. 



Microscopical Society of London. 



April 17, 1844. — J. S. Bowerbank,"Esq., F.R.S., &c, in the chair. 



Read, a paper by J. Quekett, Esq., " On some Phenomena connected with the 

 Movement of the Cilia in the common Muscle, (Mytilus edulis)" After some obser- 

 vations on the nature of ciliary movement, and on the various opinions of former ob- 

 servers respecting it, Mr. Quekett stated that in the common muscle the cilia occur in 

 the branchiae, or gills, which are four in number, two on each side, situated between 

 the lobes of the mantle. Each layer consists of rays of vessels running parallel to 

 each other like the teeth of a comb, and the cilia are situated on the margin of each 

 ray. The observations in the paper relate more particularly to the motion of the cilia 

 on the sides of the inner layer of the gill-ray. If one of these rays be placed with the 

 inner and consequently the concave side of the cilia uppermost, each column will be 

 found to present, besides the usual curved motion in a vertical plane, another slight 

 but yet important movement on itself, in a direction nearly at right angles to the pre- 

 ceding, which motion is precisely analogous to the movement of the quills in the wings 

 of birds, or to use a more familiar example, the feathering of the oar in rowing. In 

 order to observe this movement in the most satisfactory manner, the motion of the ci- 

 lia should have nearly stopped, then if we examine that part of the cilia attached to 

 the gill which may be termed the root, with a power of at least 400, this peculiar mo- 



