Thompson’s m:idgb. 
121 
exceedingly difficult to catch them with a net. He further 
remarks of an example which he kept alire for a few dkys 
that it displayed excessive restlessness and watchfulness and 
when noticed in its native element on sandy ground with a 
flowing tide, although at times a wave might bear h further 
in, it presently made its way outward again to the distance of 
about a yard from the shore; and it was only by wading into 
the deeper water beyond it that it was at last secure . ore 
were afterwards secured; but they disappeared suddenly, as if 
in periodical migration. 
As it would scarcely have been safe to place this little fish 
in our British Catalogue as a distinct species, without first 
soliciting the opinion of Dr. John Edward Grey, of the British 
Museum— to whom we have had occasion to feel greatly 
obli<^ed on other occasions— some examples were submitted to 
bis inspection, and the foUowing is a portion of his reply:— 
-It seems to be the young state of the genus LorypJmna 
or Dolphin. We have some specimens of twice the size ot 
those that Mr. Edwards sent, and others intermediate in size 
between them and the adult fish. It is curious that the 
jroung CorypJicena should be found on the coast of Banff m 
abundance, and the adult not found there, as fm- as 1 know. 
The occurrence of this fish on the coast of Scotland is 
indeed remarkable, and especially as the observations of Mr. 
Thompson on the coast of Ireland tend to shew that the 
former is not an isolated instance. It is only provisionally 
that we have designated these examples by the name of 
Thompson’s Midge. 
VOL. in. 
K 
