Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/52

26 Mr. Alfred Eccles, a former Vice-President of the Otago Acclimatisation Society, has obligingly communicated an extract from the 'Otago Daily Times,' wherein a special correspondent, writing on this subject, remarks as follows:—"In riding near Popotunoa Bush recently, in company with a friend of mine—a resident at Popotunoa—we flushed two pheasants, a cock and a hen. On expressing my surprise and delight, he informed me that there were plenty more there, and that along the Kuriwao Hills (Mr. Roberts's) and up the Waiwera Gorge, and all along that range by Kaihiku Bush, and Warepa, down to South Molyneux, and for miles back, pheasants were to be found in great abundance. This is good news for sportsmen, as from the nature of the country they can never be exterminated by fair shooting, and will afford sport quite equal, if not superior, to black game shooting in Scotland. Mr. Campbell, of Glenfalloch, tells me that there is a solitary hare frequently seen about his place, both by himself and others who know a hare when they see one. It is a great puzzle where poor puss could have come from; she must have either swum the Molyneux or crossed by Balclutha bridge. I hear the rabbits are spreading very rapidly in Southland, and threaten to be a fearful curse; they are now almost, if not quite, up to the Mataura in large quantities."

—In September last a very beautiful Blue Shark (Squalus glaucus) was captured off Plymouth. Its length was fully eight feet, and its colour exceedingly fine. This specimen, I am sorry to say, was not preserved, but I managed to secure some of its teeth, which are finely serrated.— (8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth).

[This Shark is said to be not common during the Pilchard season off the Cornish coast. —].

—Being in Taunton one day towards the end of November, I noticed in the Corn Market a small tent erected, with a notice, written in large characters, "Strange Fish," pinned on the outside. A worthy tar, who had charge of the exhibition, assured me I should see a most extraordinary monster of the deep, which no man had ever seen before, and which no one could name. I paid the modest sum of one penny for entrance, expecting to see a dogfish or a porpoise, but fouud instead a remarkably fine specimen of the Fox Shark, or Thresher (Alopes vulpes), which measured about seven feet from the head to the end of the elongated tail. The fisherman told me that this Shark had become entangled in their herring nets, about two miles to the west of Teignmouth, and had been secured after a desperate struggle. It was very fairly stuffed, and had already been exhibited at Exeter and other towns, and no doubt will be found a more remunerative take than many good hauls of herrings.— (Bishop's Lydeard, Taunton).

[The Fox Shark, or Thresher, although occasionally met with in various