Field Notes. 
163 
are constructed to withstand the enormous pressure of great 
depths, the tissues of the creature had become very brittle, 
and it fell to pieces when an attempt was made to remove it. 
The red colour of the dorsal fin is not usual in this species, 
but is characteristic of another closely related, the Deal Fish. 
Careful examination of sketches, photographs, and descriptions 
however seem to leave no room for doubt that the creature was 
a Ribbon Fish (Regal ecus glesne) , and after seeing the material 
available, Mr. J. R. Norman, of the British Museum, says, 
* You will be fully justified in recording the fish as Regalecus 
glesne . ’ Seven Yorkshire records for this fish are given in 
the * Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata,' to which I can add 
one other which was taken at Flamborough about 50 years ago. 
I saw the specimen but have no note of the exact date, and it 
does not appear to have been recorded. It was stuffed by a 
Scarborough taxidermist named Thompson, and exhibited by 
him on the Foreshore in company with a Basking Shark, 
caught about the same time. — W. J. Clarke. 
Fulmar Petrel attacking a Rabbit. — Fulmar Petrels 
have taken possession of the Scarborough Castle Cliff this 
season in greater numbers than ever before. Early in May a 
Scarborough fisherman named W. Bayes, a man familiar 
with the Fulmar on the fishing grounds, was walking on the 
Marine Drive at the foot of the cliff when his attention was 
attracted by a screaming in the air overhead. On looking up 
he saw a ‘ Mollehawk ’ (the fisherman’s local name for the 
Fulmar) carrying a small mammal, which it eventually 
dropped on the Drive. On picking it up it proved to be a 
young rabbit about 8 in. long. One wonders what motive 
impelled the Fulmar to make the attack. A similar instance 
was recorded last year at the same place, but in that case 
the bird was a Herring Gull, a much more likely species to do 
such a thing. — W. J. Clarke. 
Dispersal of Species by Commerce. — On March 5th, 
a large bird-eating spider belonging to the genus Lasiodora, 
was found alive at Scarborough in a bunch of bananas from 
Honduras. It was sent to the insect house at the Zoo. This 
species has occurred several times previously at Scarborough. 
On March 10th another large spider, Cupiennius sallei, was 
also found amongst bananas. This is a very active spider 
which captures its prey by hunting, like our native Wolf 
Spiders. It also has occurred on many previous occasions. 
A large brown long-horned grasshopper found in foreign 
fruit early in May proved to be an immature example of a 
species of Jamaicana, a genus which occurs only in Jamaica. 
Adult examples of this species have been seen here amongst 
the bananas. — W. J. Clarke. 
1933 July i 
