76 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



have failed to notice the white rump which is so very 

 conspicuous a character, though he was evidently not aware 

 of it." 



These interesting letters certainly shake one's confidence 

 in the authenticity of the eggs in question, Bond's belief in 

 them notwithstanding. 



I should say that I had Professor Newton's sanction to 

 publish these extracts from his brother's letters, but delayed 

 doing so in the hope that he might have been induced to 

 send them to the " Annals " himself. 



THE AQUATIC COLEOPTERA OF THE 

 MID-EBUDES. 



By FRANK BALFOUR-BROWNE, M.A. (Oxon.), F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. 



IN the county and vice-county divisions of Great Britain 

 adopted by the late H. C. Watson in his " Cybele Britannica," 

 the western islands of Scotland are arranged into groups of 

 which Mull, Coll, and Tiree and the Treshnish Islands 

 constitute the Mid-Ebudes. 



So far almost no collecting seems to have been done in 

 the division, and all the records which I have been able to 

 obtain which only refer to 14 species are for the island 

 of Mull. It is this scarcity of records which has led me to 

 write this paper, which is only a preliminary one, since it is 

 founded upon four days' collecting in the island of Coll and 

 two days in Mull in the Tobermory district last August. 



I understand that Tiree differs considerably from Coll 

 as to its soil, and that, whereas Coll is largely shallow peat, 

 there is little or no peat in Tiree which is largely covered 

 with sand, and this difference alone will almost certainly 

 mean a difference in the water-beetle fauna. 



Coll is a low treeless island lying about 7 miles west of 

 Mull. It is about 1 3 miles long and 5 miles wide at its 

 broadest part. It consists of innumerable hummocks of 

 gneissic rock largely devoid of vegetation, and the highest 

 point on the island is only 339 feet above sea-level. The 

 island lies in a N.E. and S.W. direction, and Tiree, which 



