Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/137

Rh hole a little elevated above, and near to, the edge of the water. When the rat first saw me it attempted to return into its hole, but was evidently opposed, and at length driven back by some foe then invisible to me: for immediately afterwards it began to struggle with renewed energy, and eventually extricated itself from the hole, when to my great surprize it dragged up after it an eel, about three quarters of a pound in weight, and which appeared to me to have the greatest portion of the rat's tail in its mouth. As soon as the head of the eel was dragged about six inches out of the hole, it liberated the rat, but whether through fear of me, or being suddenly and unexpectedly raised into a foreign element, I cannot, of course, speak decisively. I may however add, that the eel was so far dragged on terra firma by the rat, that it had considerable difficulty in wriggling itself back again into the hole, which, on examination, I found had communication with the water beneath. The following facts, which I also beg to add, corroborate the carnivorous propensity of the eel, and especially its predilection for the mouse family. A gentleman, now residing at Blackpool, Lancashire, informed me that a few years ago he was presented with a large eel, which had been taken out of the principal drain of Marton Meer; on opening the monster he found a full-grown rat in the stomach. Several persons also residing in my own immediate neighbourhood, who make a practice of placing night lines with hooks, in deep water, for eels, always tell me that the most successful bait for a large eel is a skinned mouse, or a young sparrow stripped of its feathers.—J.D. Banister; Garstang, Lancashire, February 14, 1843.

a year since while looking over the collection of Lepidoptera sent from Silhet by Mr. Stainsforth, and now in my brother's possession, I was delighted by observing what seemed to me a new species of Leptocircus; but further investigation made me suspect that this would turn out to be the true Papilio Curius of Fabricius, and consequently that the species now considered to be that insect, and on which the genus Leptocircus was founded, would, for the future, have to bear the name of Meges bestowed on it by Zinken, who, by the bye, was evidently quite unsuspicious of his insect having