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Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

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52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY<br />

pair of Spotted Redshanks, a pair of Greenshanks, and a few Lapwings<br />

were together. These we watched for a long time in a<br />

favourable light at a distance of about twenty paces. The Spotted<br />

Redshanks were in spotted and dusky, but changing plumage, the<br />

white stripe from the bill to the eye being well defined. Their call<br />

note, though very distinct, seemed to resemble considerably that of<br />

the Common Partridge. Early in September M'Culloch and Son,<br />

Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, received a Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa<br />

belgicd) to preserve. On inquiry, this specimen was found to have<br />

been shot by Mr. Gilmour of Barrhead, near Caldwell, in Neilston<br />

parish, a little beyond our limits; but on 2ist September we had<br />

several good views of a second example at Balgray Dam. Both of<br />

these were birds of the year. The note of the Balgray bird was a<br />

"kip," occasionally uttered once, but usually repeated, similar to a<br />

note emitted by Black-headed Gulls when quarrelling among themselves.<br />

JOHN PATERSON and JOHN ROBERTSON, Glasgow.<br />

Black Tern in the Firth of Forth. On the yth of August last I<br />

saw a Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigrd) near Aberlady. It hawked<br />

about for some time, keeping mainly to the course of the Peffer<br />

Burn, and then disappeared over the trees near the bridge. The<br />

bird was in adult plumage. T. G. LAIDLAW, Edinburgh.<br />

Sharks in the Moray Firth. On Saturday, yth October last, a<br />

large male Basking Shark (Selache maxima) was stranded at<br />

Kingston, and was said to have lived twenty hours after, as it lay<br />

on the beach near high-water mark. It was a full-grown animal,<br />

and probably an old one. It measured total length, 30 feet ; girth,<br />

14 feet; length of pectoral fin, 6 feet; breadth, nearly 4 feet. The<br />

first gill-cover was 6j feet long ; claspers, nearly 4 feet long and the<br />

;<br />

tail was 6-^ feet across. Hundreds of people went to see it. Mr.<br />

Muirhead of Fochabers and others took photographs of it. Several<br />

newspapers had it reported as a whale ! Another Shark, probably of<br />

the same species, was seen alive within three miles of the same<br />

place, and near the shore. The Porbeagle (Lamna connibica) has<br />

been common in the Moray Firth during the past year. Two were<br />

stranded at Nairn in September last, and one east of Lossiemouth<br />

last year.<br />

WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde.<br />

Larger Spotted Dog-fish in " Clyde." The "North British Daily<br />

Mail" of nth December contained a paragraph stating that the<br />

Girvan great line boats fishing off Lendal on the gth had caught seven<br />

some measured about five feet in length and<br />

Dog or Hound Sharks ;<br />

twenty-four inches in girth, and the females were full of well-developed<br />

eggs. The paper further stated that the species is known as hound<br />

dog-fish or rock-shark, S. catulus. On communicating this to Mr.<br />

Thomas Scott, F.L.S., he writes me: "This record is of special<br />

interest, because the species is a rare one in the Clyde ;<br />

so much so

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