Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/316

288 it dives gracefully beneath the surface after Squids or similar ocean dainties. Half a dozen birds perhaps gravely assemble to inspect an empty beer-bottle thrown overboard to bob up and down idly upon the waves, and inquisitive bills peck vigorously at the unsatisfactory flotsam, until a battle-royal disperses the family party. The wiser ones meanwhile hover in mid-air, craning their necks to throw penetrating glances from a superior height.

Of the Wandering Albatross (Diomedea exulans), the writer found eleven feet six inches to be the average wing measurement, although a gigantic specimen in the Sydney Museum extends seventeen feet six inches, with a bill six inches long. At Randwick, near Sydney, he knew of one of the "Mollymauks" having lived for fifteen years in a garden. It is a universal pet, a sort of monarch of the domain, and quite unabashed even at the presence of strangers. It will answer to call, possesses an imperturbable temper, and is gentleness itself with children. Although the "thrice resounding waves" for ever reverberate on the shore close at hand, the bird, strangely enough, never evinces the slightest desire to return to a seafaring life. Yet on a ship the captive refuses all food, and simply pines away; the heat of the tropics is said to be always fatal.

records of heavy weights of fishes have lately been published, and it is desirable that these should be preserved.

(Acipenser sturio).—On May 30th, at the stores of Messrs. Spiers and Pond, Water Lane, London, a huge fish was exhibited, weighing 614 lb., measuring from tip of tail to extremity of snout a little over 11 ft., with a girth of 5 ft. 6 in. It was taken in the North Sea on May 28th. Another specimen from the North Sea was in the first week of May on view in the Pentonville Road. This fish weighed 525 lb., but its length was not ascertained. (R.B.L. in 'Field.')

(Salmo salar).—One caught in the Severn of 51½ lb., at the shop of Mr. Grove, Bond Street, on May 15th.

(Mullus surmuletus).—A large specimen caught off Land's End on May 18th. Weight, 3 lb. 3 oz.; length from nose to tail, 18 in.; girth, 12 in. (H.T. Welch, 'Field.')

(Otolithus æquidens).—A specimen caught at Algoa Bay by Dr. Bateman, weighing 65 lb., 61 in. in length, 32½ in. in girth. Preserved, and exhibited at a meeting of the British Sea Anglers' Society, May 30th.