159 
is well known to heighten the colours of fishes. The Polewig 
sometimes abounds in considerable schuls, and seizes a bait 
with eagerness : habits which are not common to the fishes of 
this genus. The size of their mouth is too diminutive to 
admit of their receiving a hook; but their firm holdfast of 
the bait and probably the curvature of their teeth, described 
by Mr. Yarrell, were the cause that many of them were 
captured by angling; but they fall off from the hook when 
lifted high above the water. 
"WHITE GOBY. Gobius albus. Yarrell’s Br. F., vol. 1, 
p. 295, 2nd edition. 
This obscure species was first noticed by Dr. Parnell ; 
®nd though appearing sufficiently distinct, from its form and 
Proportions, to be regarded as a separate species, it affords 
some grounds for hesitation, that none have been examined 
but such as are clearly in the first stages of their existence. 
CLUPEID^E. HERRINGS. 
WHTTE BAIT. Clupea alba, Yarrell’s Br, F., vol. 2, 
p. 202. 
Whilst this little fish was considered the young of the 
Shad, no search was made for it beyond the region where it 
had become an article of luxury. Mr. Yarrell was the first 
Who decided it to be a distinct species; and since then it has 
been sought and found in oilier rivers besides the Thames. 
Wiring the summer of 1843 the favour of a gentlemen sup- 
plied me with a few specimens from the Fowey, which I 
have been able to compare with some in my collection from 
the Thames, with which they exactly agree. I am assured 
that they abound in the Fowey and I consequently conclude 
that if sought for within the reach of the tide, they might 
also be taken in the Tamar, and in the Fal, at the least be- 
tween Falmouth and Truro. 
CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. CHONDROPTERYGII. 
RAIIDA3. RAYS. 
C &AMP RAY. Torpedo. 
The wonderful properties of the Cramp Rays, unlike any 
thing found in other classes of the animal kingdom beside 
hshes, and confined to few even of them, has solicited the 
al .tention of philosophers at all times; but disregarding the 
?|hiute differences that form specific character.-, writers on 
, a tural History have not judged until recently that there 
jP'gbt be more than one species ot the race. Aud when 
has seemed to be probably established, it was still a 
fatter of doubt to which of the acknowledged species the 
B Pecimens taken in Britain should be assigned a matter 
