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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