444 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hybrid Holibut-Plaice, which I met with when casually passing a 

 fish-shop. The unusual bluish-ash colour of the fish, spotted 

 with the familiar orange dots, at once arrested my attention on 

 Aug. 17th. "How much?" I asked the vendor, taking it up 

 from the slab. " Thrippence ! " said he, laconically. "It's 

 mine," I replied, as the fellow packed up the specimen in a 

 newspaper, with the remark of its being " a rummy kind of 

 a fish!" 



The fish was 16 in. in length, very like a Holibut in the shape 

 of its head, and a Plaice in the body. The eyes were straw- 

 coloured, and the under side of the fins surrounding the fish were 

 peculiarly sprinkled with white, as if a brush of whitening had 

 been carelessly passed along them. The texture of the skin 

 below was very like that of a Holibut. 



Some time during the last week in October a small three- 

 stone example of the Sunfish (Orthagoriscus mola), which had 

 become entangled in a Scotchman's herring-nets, was brought 

 to the wharf, where it caused much comment and considerable 

 speculation as to its name, habits, &c. I heard about it the 

 same day it was taken, but had no chance of seeing it, for it was 

 snapped up by a fish -dealer for four shillings, and promptly 

 despatched to London with other fish, possibly just to exhibit on 

 a fish-slab as a "draw" or novelty. I heard that it brought 

 the original purchaser a dozen shillings profit. Probably by 

 this time it has gone the way of the rubbish-box, and been for- 

 gotten. It does seem a great pity that rarities amongst fish 

 merely gratify a passing interest, and "the incident closes"; 

 whilst a rare bird, less interesting from a naturalist's point of 

 view, and comparatively much commoner, arouses competition 

 for its possession, and sets one section of the scientific — or, at 

 least, the collectors' — world in commotion. 



I have reason to think that the interest I have shown, and to 

 a certain extent "worked up" among the local fish fraternity, 

 has borne fruit, for as soon as I made my appearance on the 

 wharf, after a week's interval, quite a number of fish-people 

 surrounded me, and sought my opinion, one man taking me to 

 a rough pencil-drawing scrawled on one of the fish-merchant's 

 office-boards, and a bit of humorous and dialectic argument 

 followed ; but everyone was satisfied when I gave them a correct 



