Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/478

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452
THE ZOOLOGIST.

mola. It measured twenty-three inches in length, sixteen inches across the body, and thirty-two inches from the tip of the dorsal-fin to that of the anal, and was brought to me the next day for this Museum. Its colour was a beautiful silvery gray on the belly and sides, and rather darker on the back. On examining it, I found adhering to the skin, so closely as to be hardly perceptible, one specimen of a round and flat trematode worm, Capsala Rudolphiana (Johnston), and many specimens of a fish-louse, Lepeoptheirus Nordmanni, as kindly determined for me by Prof. Rolleston, of Oxford. On removing the gills I found six specimens of Cecrops Latreillii clinging by their sharp claws to the horny laminae, and several masses of what I suppose to be their eggs. One female specimen was over an inch in length, and had a large male specimen attached on the under side. There was also another male, but it got separated from its partner. All these parasites were still alive, although the fish had been out of the water for many hours.—W.S.M. D'Urban (Curator, Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter).

Short-finned Tunny at Penzance.—By the kindness of Sir J. St. Aubyn, I am able to mention that a Short-finned Tunny, Thynnus brachypterus (Cuvier), has been taken off St. Michael's Mount, in this Bay. Its length is nineteen inches and a half. I am inclined to think that these fish occasionally find their way to market as large mackerel, from which species it is, however, quite distinct.—Thomas Cornish (Penzance).

Occurrence of the Pelamid On the Cornish Coast.—During the first week in August a specimen of that rare British fish, the Pelamid, Pelamys sarda, was taken by Mr. John Furse, of Mevagissey, in a groundseine in Hannah Bay. It was seventeen inches long, and weighed two pounds.—John Gatcombe (Durnford Street, btonehouse).

[This fish, in shape not unlike a Mackerel, is so rare, that Couch says (vol. ii., p. 103), "in two instances only has it been known to have been taken in Britain."—Ed.]

Boar-fish in the Isle of Wight.—The fish, of which I send an outline of the natural size, was picked up dead, but fresh, by my brother at Sandown, Isle of Wight, on July 4th. Its colours were a pinky vermilion, deepest along the back, and underneath reflections of purple and blue. The fishermen to whom I showed it considered it to be a very curiously coloured specimen of the Dory.—A.W. Rosling (20, Bootham, York). [It is the Boar-fish, Capros aper.Ed.]