228 



NOTES — LEPIDOPTERA AND MOLLUSCA. 



' On the same day that this Oar-fish was taken at Flamborough^ 

 a Sun-fis]"i was captured in North Bay at Scarborough, 52 inches by 

 32 ; this was also preserved by Mr. Thompson, and is still in his 

 possession. It is a very good specimen.' 



Couch states in his article on the Oar-fish that the first example 

 on record in England is said to have been obtained at Whitby in 

 January 1759. He also mentions another occurrence of this fish on 

 the Yorkshire coast, at Filey, in 1796. This last specimen was 13 

 feet long. In Couch's illustration of this fish it is represented as 

 having some horn-like projections at the lower extremity of the 

 dorsal fin near the tail, which are wanting in Mr. Jones' sketch. 



I heard lately of a Sun-fish having been taken at Runswick this 

 last summer. 



A specimen of a very rare fish, the Opah or King-fish, was 

 captured recently near Hartlepool ; it had been left by the tide in a 

 pool on the beach. It unfortunately found its way on to a fish- 

 monger's slab, instead of into a case at a museum. Quoting Couch 

 again : ' the Opah inhabits the deeper waters of the North Sea, from 

 which it does not often emerge. The general colours are splendid^ 

 red and green, with tints of purple and gold dotted over with round 

 silver white spots.' The capture of an Opah off Flamborough Head^ 

 in February 1849, is recorded in the ' Zoologist.' 



NOTE— LEPIDOPTERA. 

 Variation in Hybernia progemmaria.— At the April meeting of 



the Entomological Society of London, Mr. George T. Porritt exhibited a large 

 number of specimens of this species, bred from moths collected at Huddersfield 

 last spring. All the females and a large proportion of the males were of the dark 

 variety fuscaia, which formerly was almost unknown in Yorkshire, but which now 

 seemed likely to replace the paler and original type. Mr. Jenner Weir and Lord 

 Walsingham both remarked that the number of melanic forms appeared to be on 

 the increase in the north, and suggested explanations of the probable causes of 

 such increase. — H. Goss, Hon. Sec. 



NOTE—MOLLUSC A. 



Mollusca near Ashley, Cheshire. — In Mr. Standen's list of Lancashire 

 Mollusca, Ashley is quoted from Hardy as a locality for Vertigo pygvma. This 

 should have been omitted, as Ashley is in Cheshire ; and it is one of the very few 

 spots in the Cheshire plain outside the river valleys that produce land-snails in any 

 abundance. Besides V. pygmcca^ in a wood and marsh some four acres in extent 

 by Ashley Hall, there occur Vitriiia pellucida, Siiccinea elegans, Zonites alliaritis, 

 Z. cellarhcs, Z. nitidiihis, Z. pimis, Z. radiatttliis, Z. excavatus, Z. fulvKs, Z. 

 c?ystalliims, Helix aaileaia, H. hispida, H. rotnudata^ Cochlicopa liihrica and var. 

 /lyaliiza, and Carychitini mi?ti!?iu>/i, the last-named being found in hundreds last 

 year hibernating in rotten wood under the bark of an old stump in the marsh, in 

 company with Zonites ciysiallimis. In addition to these, Linuicea pej-egra and 

 triincattda, and Avion ater, A. hortensis^ Li?}iax ag?-estis, with vars. tristis and 

 sylvatica, L. arboniiii, and L. brunneiis inhabit the wood. — J. G. MiLNE, June 8th. 



Naturalist, 



