GENERAL NOTES. 27 
_ The thickness of the wool varies very much, the best Merino being about 
half as thick as Leicester. We hope to be able to work out tables showing the 
correlation of thickness, roughness, breed, and price. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
SILPHID&.—In No. 11, page 516, I noticed a friendly little 
critique by a Mr. R. Helms. I daresay he thought I had written 
the condensed report to which he alludes. In my paper I stated 
that the group Silphidz consisted for the most part of necrophagous 
beetles, but that remark applied to those found beyond New 
Zealand. The Silphidz is usually divided into Silphide and 
Choleridz ; the latter section comprises chiefly small vegetable- 
feeding insects. I then stated that I could not give any accurate 
information as to the habits of the only New Zealand species 
(Necrophilus prolongatus) that I did not possess. 
THOS. BROUN. 
Howick, Auckland, 15th October, 1883. 
BREEDING HABITS OF THE TORPEDO.—I-enclose herewith 
an extract from the “ London Tablet,” which may be of suff- 
cient interest to find a place in your Journal. If one statement 
contained therein be true, namely, that the Mediteranean Torpedo 
Ray “drops its eggs when matured into the depths of the sea,” 
then it must differ greatly from our variety, Torpedo Fairchildz, 
Hutton. Just two years ago I found on the beach at this place, 
and only just dead, a fine specimen of the last-named fish with 
a young one lying near it ; the larger fish was a female. I took 
her home to skin, and when doing so took from her five more 
young ones of the same size as the one found with her on the 
beach ; so it would appear that either the Roman Professor is 
in error about the dropping of the eggs by the European Torpedo, 
or our variety has a different method of reproducing the species. 
The young Torpedos mentioned above are now in the museums 
at Christchurch and Wellington, and the skin of the mother is 
still in my possession, but will be forwarded to Dr. Von Haast. 
C2 Hy ROBSON: 
Portland Island, 21st Nov., 1883. 
“A zoological curiosity was not long since brought to light 
from the depths ofa kettle in the renowned Trattoria della 
Rosetta. A scullion, washing dishes in the aforesaid kettle, felt 
between his hands a somewhat soft substance, which on drawing 
forth he found to be an oblong, roundish body, gelatinous, and 
yellowish in color, having at either extremity two slender white 
filaments furnished with scarcely perceptible radications. In 
the centre of this transparent body was a bluish mass of an 
utterly undefinable nature. The secretary of the establishment 
