412 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



summer or autumn in companies, or otherwise ? Stragglers, of 

 course, there will be, either driven from their companions by 

 enemies, or otherwise accidentally separated. But why do they 

 occasionally ascend river-mouths to limits of the brackish water ? 

 The Kent specimen, one would suspect, entered the Swale follow- 

 ing a shoal of whitebait, and it is not unlikely that others have 

 gone up rivers under similar conditions. 



Taking into consideration what paucity of information is 

 available to judge of where the Exocceti breed and spawn, it 

 behoves not to speak rashly. The uncoiling and grasping struc- 

 ture of their egg-covering is equally adapted to entwine the 

 weedy vegetation of shallows, as it is capable of pelagic floating 

 and attachment to objects in mid-ocean. Thus naturalists and' 

 others ought to clear up the breeding as well as food question. 

 If my remarks stimulate inquiry among sea-travellers my object 

 will be gained. The less practicable though more burning topic 

 of their flight it is not my intention to enter into here. 



