these broken ledges afforded a partial support, though extending over more than half their width. The lines of nests exactly followed the winding projections of these ledges everywhere, giving a very singular appearance to the cliff, especially when the white birds were sitting on them. The nests were built with dry grass, agglutinated together and to the rock in some unexplained manner; perhaps by a mucus secreted by the bird for the purpose. The nests had a very shallow depression at the top, in which lay two eggs. The whole establishment had an intolerable odour of guano, and -the nests were very filthy. The birds hardly moved at our approach, only those within a few yards leaving their posts. I reached up and took down two nests, one containing two young birds, and the other empty. Wind coming up, we were obliged to pull away, and the bird, which came back, lighted on the rock where her nest and young had been, with evident astonishment at the mysterious disappearance. After flying about a little, she again settled on the spot, and suddenly making up her mind that foul play on the part of some other bird had taken place, she commenced a furious assault on her nearest neighbour. As we pulled away, the little fellows began to be affected yb the motion of the boat, and with the most ludicrous expression of nausea, imitating as closely as a bird could do the motions and expressions of a sea-sick person, they very soon deposited their dinner on the edge of the nest. It was composed of small fishes or minnows, too much disorganised to be identified. Eggs, in a moderately fresh condition, were obtained about the same time, but most of them were far advanced toward hatching. These birds are very curious, and scouts are always seen coming from a flock of them when a boat or other unusual object approaches. These scouts very soon return to the flock if not molested, aud the whole flock then proceeds to investigate the phenomenon.

Cuttle-fish.-The following few memoranda may be acceptable in reference to the "Cuttle-fish" paper of April last. They are sent to us by MajorGeneral Nelson, of Stoke, Devonport:-"On my way to Bermuda, 1827, the crew caught a shark of some size; in its stomach we found a portion of the arm of a creature of this description; but whether Poulpe, &c. &c., I was not then able to determine. The said 'portion' was about 4 feet long, 4 inches in diameter at one end, and 3 inches at the other. Both ends were sharply cut off; and there was no appearance of decomposition by digestion, which might lead to the supposition that the locket-shaped appendages were suckers deformed by that process. I have a small carefullysketched Sepioteuthis, done some time afterwards, the suckers of which agree very well in form with those shown in the Plate, p. 122.

"As well as I can now remember, these locket- or heart-shaped processes were about 1" long, and hung by means of a short neck, some 3 or 4 inches from the arm; the substance of this last being of the usual greyish-white matter, reminding one of the hard-boiled albumen of a duck's egg, as far as colour is concerned.

"The movements of the above-mentioned Sepioteuthis are wonderfully fleet, as it flits among the coral-reefs, just touching the white sand with the end of an arm; and then, on alarm, discharging a cloud of sepia, and, under cover thereof dodging back in quite an opposite direction, with the quickness of lightning.

"I had followed one of these animals-or a congener thereof-to a small hole in a rock. In vain I solicited him to come out by gentle pulls with a boat-hook; at last, when they were harder than he liked, he discharged the contents of his sepia-bag all over me, and spoilt my waistcoat and trowsers completely that dye requiring no mordant, and being, as far as I know, indelible."

The Anatomy of the genus Phronima.-In an interesting paper of the Royal Society, published in the "Proceedings" for March, Dr. J. D. Macdonald enters into a minute account of this singular crustacean, which is very excellently illustrated in the plate which, singular enough for the Proceedings of the Royal Society, accompanies the paper. The case which accompanies the animal seems most strange. Dr. Macdonald says on this point that a specimen was taken in the towing-net, but with the addition of a numerous progeny of young in a large gelatinous but tough nidamental case. This interesting nest was shaped like a barrel, but with both ends open, and the external surface was somewhat tuberculated and uneven. The wall of the tube presented numerous round and puckered openings, observing no very definite arrangement, but through which entering currents were observed to pass. These openings generally, though not invariably, pierced the tuberculations. An external membrane, with an internal lining, were distinctly visible, both seeming to be continuous at the rims of the tube. The space between these layers was filled up with a pulpy substance, in which scattered nucleiform bodies were detected with a higher power of the microscope. I have been particular in the description of the case, as some far-fetched guesses were made as to its real nature. The cutting, piercing, and tearing implements of Phronima would very soon alter and reduce a bell-shaped Medusa, a Salpian, or a Pyrosoma tube to the required pattern; for there is usually a great uniformity in the character and appearance of this case.

A Revision of the Echini has been conducted by Mr. Alexander Agassiz. Part III. of his work, quarto, which has forty-five plates, has quite recently been issued. Professor S. E. Verril thus notices its appearance in a late number of "Silliman's American Journal." He says that this excellent work is profusely illustrated by unique plates, a large part of which have been made by different photographic printing processes, directly from photographs of the specimens, and are of unrivalled excellence. The Woodbury-type process, the Albert-type, and the Heliotype, have all been successfully employed, while superior lithographs have also been used to some extent. Part III. contains detailed descriptions of all the known species, except those of the east coast of North America, which were described in Part II. Such species are, however, referred to in their proper systematic places. Twenty-eight plates illustrate Part III.; the remaining seventeen relate to structure, and belong to Part IV., but are issued in advance of the text, owing to the loss of the MSS., drawings, and some of the plates, by the great Boston fire in November, 1872.

337

THE SONG OF FISHES.

BY JOHN C. GALTON, M.A., F.L.S.

[PLATE CXIII.]

"Un vrai vagabondage musical qui saisit par sa nouveauté, et est tellement attrayant qu'on l'entend avec plus de plaisir, ou du moins avec plus d'étonnement, que ces excentricités musicales que l'Allemagne a cherché dans ces derniers temps à importer chez nous."-DurossÉ, 1874.

M.

DUFOSSE, though in the above sentence unmistakably declaring himself no disciple of the composer of Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, and showing himself a far from promising proselyte as far as "the music of the future" is concerned, and though thus sadly assimilating his musical taste to our British standard-such as it is-is, nevertheless, entitled to be heard with respect, at all events so long as fishes are under consideration, seeing that he has for a long period had several hundred of these cold-blooded musicians under constant observation.

That certain fishes produce at certain seasons sounds-nay, more, that many such sounds can be brought under the category of musical notes-is known but to few even in these our days, though the fact did not escape the notice of that most observant of all natural historians, Aristotle; and that which he thought and wrote in Greek on this subject has, of course, as in other things, been echoed some centuries later by Pliny in Latin.t

More recently recorded observations upon the sounds produced by fishes are but few and far between. One of the best perhaps of all accounts is that given by Sir J. Emerson Tennent, late Governor of Ceylon.‡ When at Batticaloa

* “ Ψόφους δέ τινας ἀφιᾶσι καὶ τριγμοὺς οὓς λέγουσι φωνεῖν, οἷον λύρα καὶ χρόμις· οὗτοι γὰρ ἀφιᾶσιν ὥσπερ γρυλλισμόν· καὶ ὁ κάπρος ὁ ἐν τῷ ̓Αχελώῳ ἔτι δὲ χαλκεὺς καὶ κόκκυξ.” "Hist. Anim." iv. 9, 3.

"Nat. Hist." lib. xi. Ælian, too (Пɛpì Zwŵv 'Idiórηroc, lib. x. cap. ii.), quotes Aristotle's statement, but adds nothing new to it.

"Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon," pp. 380-85 and 401. London: 1861.