ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 121 



of teeth is shorter than the row on each of the palatine bones ; the 

 dorsal fin ends in an even curve down to the base of the caudal fin ; 

 the top of the frontal bones behind the eyes is at least as broad 

 as the interorbital space ; colour dark greyish brown or a lighter 

 chocolate colour, with indistinct round, or rounded quadrangular, 

 black spots, partly arranged in slightly marked transverse bands 

 across the back. It occurs on the coasts of Greenland and Iceland, 

 as well as in Norwegian Finmark. It has not hitherto, we believe, 

 been found in British Seas. EDS.] 



Occurrence of Velella spirans, Eschsc/wltz, in Scottish Waters. 

 During the autumn of 1904 Mr. Wm. Eagle Clarke discovered, on 

 the Flannan Isles, a solitary specimen of this tropical and sub- 

 tropical Siphonophore, which he has since presented to the Royal 

 Scottish Museum. The Velella was found, after a strong south- 

 westerly gale, resting on a mass of spume with which it had been 

 borne to the top of the cliffs almost a hundred feet in height by the 

 force of the wind. It was perfectly fresh, of a brilliant blue colour, 

 and examination shows that the specimen was mature, for large 

 numbers of gonophores occur on the gonozooids or reproductive 

 individuals. Velella spirans is a casual visitor to the British Isles, 

 where it is occasionally found on the western coast, but probably 

 only after a gale from the Atlantic. It may have been the species 

 recorded from Scottish waters so long ago as 1771; of which 

 Fleming in his "History of British Animals " (Edinburgh, 1828), 

 p. 500, says that "Dr. Walker, in his MS. 'adversaria' for 1771, 

 states the Medusa velella of Linnaeus as having been found at Ose 

 in Sky ; and Mr. Pennant in his ' Caledonian Zoology,' prefixed to 

 Lightfoot's 'Flora Scotica,' vol. i. 66, notices the same animal 

 without any remark. It is impossible to determine with certainty to 

 which of the modern species these references belong." Prof. M'Intosh 

 also refers to its occurrence on the Scottish coast where, on the 

 Outer Hebrides, " countless myriads of the little Velella are tossed 

 in autumn on the sand " (" Marine Invert, and Fishes of St. Andrews," 

 I ^75, p. 32). On the south-west of Ireland its occurrence, as one 

 would expect, is more frequent ; for example, at Valentia Harbour, 

 in the south-west of Kerry, there occurred in April 1899 a shoal 

 of small specimens, in June 1900 a large shoal, and in July 1901 

 a solitary large specimen (M. and C. Delap, " Rep. Fisheries, 

 Ireland," for 1902-1903, pt. 2, App. I. [1905], p. 4), while others 

 were stranded to the west of Cork Harbour on loth October 1903 

 (H. A. Martin, "Irish Naturalist," xiii. 1904, p. 27). JAMES 

 RITCHIE, The Royal Scottish Museum. 



Ornithobius goniopleurus, Denny, on the Bernaele Goose. 

 The hosts given by Denny, and quoted by Piaget, for this Mallo- 

 phagous parasite are the Canada Goose and the Goosander ; and 

 Giebel gives it from the Mute Swan. To these I can add the 



