SOME FISH-NOTES FROM GREAT YARMOUTH. 453 



A fifteen-inch Scomber concolor — a whole blue-backed Mackerel 

 without stripings — brought in on May 28th. Two or three 

 Scribbled Mackerel (S. scomber var. scriptus) were met with 

 during the progress of the fishing. 



On June 8th a small schoolboy interested in Sticklebacks, as 

 are most urchins, brought to me a large pickle-bottle in which 

 were a number of very tiny Three-spined Sticklebacks. The 

 boy had found the nest and carefully placed it in the bottle, 

 judiciously adding some vegetable matter from the ditch, while 

 the water was beautifully clean, although for some time un- 

 changed. We could discern minute fish not more than a 

 quarter of an inch in length happily swimming about in their 

 small prison birthplace. 



I had shown to me on June 9th a very fine example of 

 Sebastes norvegicus. It weighed when full 17£ lb., and when 

 empty 14 lb. It was taken in the trawl, but no definite locality 

 was obtainable. 



An Eel was observed in trouble in a ditch at Belton, a few 

 miles south of Yarmouth. A gardener, who saw it making 

 queer antics in an evident endeavour to rid itself of something, 

 shot it, when he discovered the body of a Water-Vole fast in the 

 fish's gullet. 



Breydon was alive with " whitebait " (Herring-fry) on the 

 morning of July 30th. I was much interested for some time in 

 watching a Heron standing beside a drain most industriously 

 and adroitly snapping up these lively little fishes. 



A very pretty example of a variegated Brill, 14 in. in length, 

 came under my notice. The ground-work of the upper sur- 

 face was white, but the tail and round the eyes exhibited 

 the normal colouring, and nine spots were regularly dotted 

 around the fish, four on each side, and one on the lateral line 

 an inch or two off the tail. These spots were about the size of 

 a florin. 



An incursion of small Pollack (Gadas pollachius) noticeable 

 during the third week in September ; they were about the size of 

 an average Mackerel. 



September 24th : Saw a fine Porbeagle Shark {Lamna cornu- 

 bica) on the fish-wharf, just landed from a fishing-boat. Length, 

 nine feet. 



