320 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



sixty pounds, and one of these devastating hosts was captured in 

 a seine a few years ago, and numbered 218, and weighed nearly 

 9000 lb. Our space forbids further extracts, though we might 

 quote equally interesting facts relating to the Tarpon (T. atlan- 

 ticus), which has been seen by an angler to make " a thirty-foot 

 horizontal leap," and has been captured by rod and reel of a 

 weight of 213 lb. The Leaping Tuna {Thunnus thynnus), of 

 which specimens weighing 1000 lb. have been harpooned, and an 

 example weighing 251 lb. fairly caught with usual angling tackle, 

 divide into small squadrons of from fifty to two hundred, and 

 move " in the general form of flying ducks or geese, a large tri- 

 angular figure, with one or two large fishes perhaps in the lead." 

 But we must pause — the subject is too enticing ; the book can 

 be read with pleasure and instruction by both naturalist and 

 angler, and it is beautifully illustrated. 



A Naturalist' s Calendar kept at Sioaffham Bulbeck, Cambridge- 

 shire. By Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Edited 

 by Francis Darwin. Cambridge : University Press. 

 This Calendar, relating to plants, birds, and insects, was 

 founded on observations made near Cambridge between the 

 years 1820 and 1831, and is a model of method in bionomical 

 record. Blomefield's observations are neither trifling nor re- 

 dundant. He is almost painfully concise and accurate. He 

 tells us that his school-fellows nicknamed him Methodist, and 

 that through life " I have been a man of few words." Perhaps 

 the most momentous event in his life was his refusal to go as 

 naturalist with FitzRoy in the ' Beagle.' This may be said to 

 have prepared the way for the foundation of the " Darwinian 

 epoch." We are all sometimes dumfounded when we see the 

 mere accidents that seem to promote or prevent man's intellectual 

 evolution. Remove the ' Voyage of the Beagle' from Darwin's 

 career, and to-day the whole of modern thought might have been 

 of a totally different trend. And this was made possible by 

 the refusal of Blomefield " after a day of hesitation." He, how- 

 ever, subsequently described the fish in the " Zoology " of the 

 ' Voyage.' As a naturalist, Blomefield was known for his 

 " minute and scrupulous exactness in matters of fact." 



