Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY
pair of Spotted Redshanks, a pair of Greenshanks, and a few Lapwings
were together. These we watched for a long time in a
favourable light at a distance of about twenty paces. The Spotted
Redshanks were in spotted and dusky, but changing plumage, the
white stripe from the bill to the eye being well defined. Their call
note, though very distinct, seemed to resemble considerably that of
the Common Partridge. Early in September M'Culloch and Son,
Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, received a Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa
belgicd) to preserve. On inquiry, this specimen was found to have
been shot by Mr. Gilmour of Barrhead, near Caldwell, in Neilston
parish, a little beyond our limits; but on 2ist September we had
several good views of a second example at Balgray Dam. Both of
these were birds of the year. The note of the Balgray bird was a
"kip," occasionally uttered once, but usually repeated, similar to a
note emitted by Black-headed Gulls when quarrelling among themselves.
JOHN PATERSON and JOHN ROBERTSON, Glasgow.
Black Tern in the Firth of Forth. On the yth of August last I
saw a Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigrd) near Aberlady. It hawked
about for some time, keeping mainly to the course of the Peffer
Burn, and then disappeared over the trees near the bridge. The
bird was in adult plumage. T. G. LAIDLAW, Edinburgh.
Sharks in the Moray Firth. On Saturday, yth October last, a
large male Basking Shark (Selache maxima) was stranded at
Kingston, and was said to have lived twenty hours after, as it lay
on the beach near high-water mark. It was a full-grown animal,
and probably an old one. It measured total length, 30 feet ; girth,
14 feet; length of pectoral fin, 6 feet; breadth, nearly 4 feet. The
first gill-cover was 6j feet long ; claspers, nearly 4 feet long and the
;
tail was 6-^ feet across. Hundreds of people went to see it. Mr.
Muirhead of Fochabers and others took photographs of it. Several
newspapers had it reported as a whale ! Another Shark, probably of
the same species, was seen alive within three miles of the same
place, and near the shore. The Porbeagle (Lamna connibica) has
been common in the Moray Firth during the past year. Two were
stranded at Nairn in September last, and one east of Lossiemouth
last year.
WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde.
Larger Spotted Dog-fish in " Clyde." The "North British Daily
Mail" of nth December contained a paragraph stating that the
Girvan great line boats fishing off Lendal on the gth had caught seven
some measured about five feet in length and
Dog or Hound Sharks ;
twenty-four inches in girth, and the females were full of well-developed
eggs. The paper further stated that the species is known as hound
dog-fish or rock-shark, S. catulus. On communicating this to Mr.
Thomas Scott, F.L.S., he writes me: "This record is of special
interest, because the species is a rare one in the Clyde ;
so much so