Mollusks. 769 



Note on Toads found in Blocks of Stone. I quite agree with you that the state- 

 ments about toads found in solid stone, are mostly very unsatisfactory (Zool. 677). 

 One instance of the kind I have seen, as briefly stated, 'Mag. Nat. Hist.' ix. 316. 

 The toad appeared to me neither more nor less than our common species, although I 

 certainly did not examine it scientifically. The stone was the new red sandstone of 

 geologists; and was brought up, as I was told, some yards from below the surface. I 

 understood the toad, and the two portions of stone in which it was found inclosed, were 

 deposited in some medical museum at Birmingham. The animal would not have 

 been discovered but for an accident : the workmen were carting the stone away, and 

 the block containing the toad happened to be placed on the top of a great load, and 

 accidentally fell from the cart to the ground, and breaking by the fall, brought to light 

 the incarcerated reptile, which, I conclude, was somewhat injured by the fall, as there 

 was a fresh wound on one side of the head, and it appeared to be blind of one eye. 

 The toad died, I was informed, the second day after it was discovered, partly, in all 

 probability, in consequence of the injury. When I say the block of stone was solid, 

 this statement requires some qualification : the two parts of the stone fitted together 

 exactly, and quite close, except where the cavity was in which the toad lay ; but from 

 this cavity there was evidently a flaw on one side towards the extremity, and a disco- 

 louring of the substance of the sandstone, so that although the two portions fitted to- 

 gether, they might not have been (on one side of the cavity) very firmly united. This 

 circumstance, perhaps, may detract much from the value of the example ; neverthe- 

 less, it is unaccountable how the animal could have got into the position in which it 

 was found : it is not conceivable, I think, that it should have been there ever since the 

 first formation of the rock, and there certainly appeared to be no means by which it 

 could have entered the rock in its present state, even admitting (what we know to be 

 the fact) that toads have the power of getting in and out of a very small orifice. — W. 

 T. Bree ; Allesley Rectory, Sept. 17, 1844. 



Note on the occurrence of the Boar-fish on the Coast of Cornwall. The boar-fish 

 (Zeus Aper) continues to be taken in the neighbourhood of the Runnel-stoue rock, and 

 along the coast near the Land's End, a tract till of late not much visited by the Mount's 

 Bay fishing-boats. Fresh discoveries will probably be heard of when we arrive at a 

 more extended knowledge of the hidden secrets of the Lethowstow or Lioness, as the 

 expanse of troubled waters between Scilly and the Land's End is here called. — Frede- 

 rick Holme; Penzance, October 21, 1844. 



Correction of a previous Error. I write to request the correction of a verbal error 

 in the last number (Zool. 679), where, in my note on the Opah, Eccles is stated to be 

 on the western coast of Norfolk, which is wrong, as it is on the north-eastern part of our 

 coast. — /. H. Gurney ; Norwich, Sept. 7, 1844. 



Note on Duval's Terebratula. In the September number of your interesting peri- 

 odical (Zool. 679), there appears a notice accompanied by a figure of what is consider- 

 ed to be a new form among the Terebratulee. However rarely specimens exhibiting 

 this remarkable character (the central perforation) may find their way into English 



ii 2 k 



