Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 245
sight in the bright sun of a summer day (August 1897). Dr. James
Dunlop, who presented the specimens above named to the Kelvingrove
Museum, states that White-beaked Dolphins are to be seen
daily in Kilbrannan Sound, where several other species of Dolphin
also occur ("Glasgow Herald," 7th September 1895). So far as
I know, the following are the only statements with any specific
value regarding our other Clyde Dolphins, (i) Lagenorhynchus
acutus (White-sided Dolphin), an example captured at Ardrishaig, as
recorded in the " Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides,"
1892, p. 29. (2) Mr. F. Gordon Pearcey, Naturalist to the
Scottish Fishery Board, informs me that on i4th September 1898
he saw a large school of Delphinus delphis (?)
between Ardlamont
and Skipness points ;
and there is in Rothesay Museum a skull
labelled " Porpoise from Mr. A. M'Kirdy," but which I believe to
be this species, the Common Dolphin, as the skull is about 24 inches
in length, and has about 190 teeth. (3) The "New Statistical
Account" (vii., 1845, p. 439) states that the Great Dolphin
{Delphimis tursid), from 12 to 15 feet in length, and with a pointed
muzzle or beak, frequents the coast of Saddell and Skipness
during the herring-fishing season ; and in the Anatomical Museum,
Edinburgh, are the skull and ear-bones of an example of this species
shot in August 1879 in Loch Long by Dr. D. Noel Paton. It
will be seen that a satisfactory determination of at least one of the
species is still awanting. Further information may also show that
the name " bucker " is
applied to more than one species, and it
may be noted that the "Old Statistical Account" (v., 1793, p. 535),
under Glasgow, mentions the Grampus or Bucker, Delpninus orca.
I
may further say that I have made inquiry regarding
the skulls in
the Hunterian Museum referred to by Mr. Wm. Taylor (ante, p. 68),
and while I am told it is certain that they are from the Clyde area
(obtained about thirty years ago), yet in the absence of any data
(quite a characteristic of this museum) it is impossible to accept
this statement, more particularly
as there is no record of the
occurrence of Prodelphiniis in British waters. One of the skulls,
labelled Delphinus delphis, has a business card (E. Gerard . . .
Pimlico) attached to it bearing the name Sterna (sic) compressus,
and the same name is written on the skull itself. Sterno compressus,
Gray, is apparently a synonym for S. restrains, Desmarest
(Beddard's "Book of Whales," 1900, p. 273), and of this species
there is also no British record. HUGH BOYD WATT, Glasgow.
Ornithological Notes from Orkney. A pair of Whimbrels
(Numenius phaopus) bred near Finstown on the Mainland this year, a
new locality for that bird, as previously they have only been recorded
from Hoy.
A flock of quite one hundred Pochards (Fuligula ferina)
appeared on the Loch of Skaill the second week in July ; previously,