Zoology. 361 
appearance, are united at their bases, and terminate, each, in a 
toothed pincer. 
FisHes.—M. L. Vaillant has recently, in a note upon the com- 
parative dimensions of young and adult examples of Alopias vulpes, 
remarked that the size of the young is, among fishes, influenced by 
that of the parent, which commences to reproduce before its growth 
is complete. A specimen of A. vulpes, taken at Cette, measured — 
4.70 metres in length, and the largest of four foetuses contained 
within its oviduct had a length of 14 metres. On the other hand, 
a female fox-shark, 1.17 metres long, also contained foetuses. 
It is not always that collectors note down the colors of the speci- 
mens while still alive, and thus the small collection of fishes from 
the Society Islands and Paumotu, made by Lieut. M. Trigon, 
omes of value through the sketches accompanying it. M. Vail- 
lant draws attention, in some prefatory remarks, to the losses incur- 
red by attaching metal tags to the specimens by means of copper or 
iron wire instead of by vegetable fibre. Galvanic action is set up, 
and the scales and bones of the fishes, as well as the wire itself, are 
destroyed or fall apart. 
A recent number of the Jzvestia, of the Russian Geographical 
Society, contains M. N icolsky’s sketch of the fishing on Lake Aral, 
- which is a valuable contribution to the ichthyology of that lake and 
of the Lower Arnu-daria. 
ton of the paired fins of Ceratodus, with observations upon those of the 
Elasmobranchs. His conclusions are that the characters of the 
