250 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



sent me by Mr. Robert M'Call, Carsethorn. It is a symmetrical and 

 beautiful fish. The specimen weighed i| Ibs. ; was in length 16 

 inches, and greatest girth 13 inches. I have not seen a specimen 

 since a small one was sent me by Mr. M'Call several years since. 

 ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Lamna spallanzanii in the Moray Firth An explanation. 

 About ten years ago my attention was called to a fresh, but some- 

 what damaged shark at Nairn. I examined it and secured the head, 

 and came to the conclusion that it was a common Porbeagle, Lamna 

 cornubica, and recorded it as such in the " Annals." Many examples 

 of the true Lamna cornubica turned up on our coast within the next 

 few years, and I at once saw that the identification of my first record 

 might be wrong, or that there might be a considerable difference in 

 the teeth of the male and female. Dr. Traquair kindly helped me 

 in the matter, and I saw that the teeth in the two sexes did not 

 differ. I noticed recently that the figured Lamna cornubica in the 

 Cambridge Natural History and in the Oxford Natural History 

 agreed with my original specimen from Nairn, and were not like 

 the common species. I applied to Dr. Boulenger, F.R.S., of the 

 British Museum, to assist me, as the rarer species was a short shark 

 with long teeth, and the common species a long shark with short 

 teeth. He said that it was clear that two species of Lamna had 

 been confounded by some authors ; that the long teeth agreed with 

 the Lamna cornubica of Day, but should be called Lamna spallanzanii. 

 The species with the short teeth is the true Lamna cornubica, as Dr. 

 Traquair told me. This is not an affair of variety, but of very 

 distinct species. The distance from snout to pectoral fin in Lamna 

 spallanzanii is about one-third the total length of the shark. In 

 Lamna cornubica it is only about one-fourth the total length. Is 

 Lamna spallanzanii a rare shark on the east coast of Scotland ? 

 The late George Sim of Aberdeen, who examined hundreds of 

 sharks, makes no mention in his book of two species of Lamna I 

 think the long teeth and very different proportions of this shark 

 would have caught his experienced eye. WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde. 



Sea Lamprey in Skye. A fine example of this fish was 

 forwarded to the Royal Scottish Museum for identification by Mr. 

 Donald Beaton. It had been captured in a loch at or near 

 Swordale, Broadford, Skye, about the middle of July last. As this 

 anadromous fish is not recorded for the west coast of Scotland in 

 Day's " British and Irish Fishes," and is probably uncommon there, 

 this instance of the occurrence of Petromyzon marinus may be worthy 

 of record. WM. EAGLE CLARKE. 



The Worm Pipe-flsh (Nerophis lumbriciformis) in "Forth." 

 An example of this little fish, 4^ inches in length, was captured under 

 a stone between tide-marks at North Berwick on nth June last, and 

 given to me the same day as the young of one of the larger species. 



