was in a most distressing state. What passed 

 from her was thin, often of a clear greenish 

 color; and she occasionally was sick. Then 

 she would sneeze violently, and was troubled 

 with intense thirst. On one occasion, she 

 voided pure blood. Had she ruptured a blood- 

 vessel ? The last day of her life was marked by 

 a decided change. She refused to eat, and sat 

 moping on her perch. When I approached her, 

 she made one last effort to come on my hand ; 

 and when nestled in my bosom, seemed per- 

 fectly "happy" there. All consciousness, how- 

 ever, disappeared in a few short hours, and I 

 was bereft of a most affectionate friend and 

 companion. Had the mineral water of Tun- 

 bridge Wells, in which her bread was soaked, 

 anything to do with the matter? I had the bird 

 five years, and I wish to know how / ought to 

 have treated her. — Ada., Tunbridge Wells. 



[We imagine it possible, the water might have 

 something to do with the death of this unfor- 

 tunate bird; especially as you say, in another 

 part of your note, it fell ill the very day after 

 your arrival at the Wells. All we can do is, to 

 sympathise with you, which we do most sin- 

 cerely. Some of our good friends will, no doubt, 

 soon throw a light upon what more is desired.] 



Propagation of Eels by " Spawn ; " a tl Vulgar 

 Error." — You have done the community much 

 good service by exposing the cheat recently at- 

 tempted to be put upon them in this matter. All 

 sound argument is in your favor, I have cut 

 the enclosed from my copy of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, January 24. It is short, and its 

 pithiness is quite to the point: — "I caught an 

 eel left by the tide in a small pool on the sands 



near B 1, and, for a boyish whim, carried it 



home alive, and placed it in a very small tank 

 of salt water. The next morning, to my surprise, 

 I found two small eels, one in the act of leaving 

 the mother. Now I have not a doubt that this 

 fact may be questioned ; yet I must believe what 

 I saw. — Observatory Whether the " fact " be 

 " questioned " by Mr. Boccius or not, is of little 

 consequence. I believe it, and so will the public. 

 — Truth. 



[We also beg to insert the remarks of three 

 other correspondents. We have received a multi- 

 tude of letters, from all quarters, on the subject: 

 but as all these tend one way, they would occupy 

 more space to-day than can be well spared. Mr. 

 Boccius must, ere this, have seen his error. He 

 has not attempted to reply.] 



Having noticed the communications on this 

 subject which have recently appeared in your 

 columns, I am desirous of mentioning a fact, 

 which appears to me to throw some light upon 

 the localities in which eels are bred, though it 

 leaves the question of the mode of generation 

 precisely where it stood before. Like your cor- 

 respondent "T. G.," I have many times seen 

 columns of small eels, three or four inches long, 

 ascending the Ribble and other rivers, in the 

 months of May and June, at considerable dis- 

 tances from the sea ; but only on one occasion 

 have I seen them under circumstances which 

 evidently brought them near the place of their 

 nativity. I happened to be attending the Lan- 

 caster spring assizes in the month of March, in 



(I believe) the year 1826, and learning that 

 there was a remarkably high tide in the estuary of 

 the Lune, I walked down to the river side about 

 high water, and found that the tide had covered 

 the grass in many places; and, as it began to 

 ebb, I observed something moving in a very small 

 hollow which had been overflowed, and in which 

 a little water had been left behind. On examina- 

 tion, I found that the moving bodies were ex- 

 ceedingly diminutive eels, rather less, to the best 

 of my recollection, than three-quarters of an 

 inch long, very light colored, and almost 

 transparent, but exhibiting, in every respect, the 

 true form of the mature eel. They had evidently 

 followed the water to its extreme verge, where 

 it could not have been more than an inch deep ; 

 and that they must have been very numerous 

 was clear, from the large numbers which were 

 left behind and perished; for that they did 

 perish I found on the following day, when they 

 were lying dead by hundreds on the grass. Pro- 

 bably some of your correspondents, who reside in 

 localities favorable for making observations on 

 this subject, may be induced to pay a little atten- 

 tion to it. If the young eels make their appear- 

 ance in the same manner every year, by the use 

 of a fine muslin net, the exact period of their 

 first appearance may be ascertained, with pro- 

 bably other facts calculated to throw light on 

 the obscure question of their generation. — J, G., 

 Manchester, 



Your correspondent is quite in error when he 

 supposes eels are not produced in fresh water, 

 as the following fact will prove. Some years 

 since, the Eiver Avon, at Bath, either from ex- 

 cessive drought, or from being cleansed, was nearly 

 exhausted, and I examined a considerable part 

 of the bed of the river. On turning up some 

 large stones imbedded in the mud, I dis- 

 covered myriads of young eels in clusters, 

 from the size of a thread to that of a crow quill, 

 concealed under them. Stone after stone I 

 turned over in this way, exposing numbers to 

 light, I expect for the first time; and, judging 

 from their contortions, very much to their as- 

 tonishment. I can only say, if these eels had 

 ever migrated from the sea, they must have 

 commenced their journey very young, as it 

 was full fifteen or sixteen miles from the spot 

 where I thus intruded upon their domestic pri- 

 vacy. — C. H. B., Fulham. 



The question of the breeding of eels having 

 been mooted in a late number of your Journal, 

 without much illuminating the " muddy dark- 

 ness " of the subject, I beg leave to cast a mite or 

 two into the very limited fund of information we 

 possess on the interesting habits and localities of 

 these mysterious fish. Inviting your company 

 into the New Forest, in Hampshire, we there shall 

 fall in with frequent pools and splashes of water at 

 this season of the year, which pools become com- 

 pletely dried up in the summer. Towards the end 

 of autumn, the mud, or soft soil, becomes suf- 

 ficiently baked and hardened by the sun to bear 

 the weight of cattle passing over it. When in 

 that state, the cottagers are in the habit of dig- 

 ging over the black soil, seeking for eels! Many 

 of these are found imbedded in the damp earth, at 

 depths of from twelve to eighteen inches below the 

 surface, in numbers sufficient to repay them for 



