120 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



in 1908, but was not in a fit condition to keep. i5th December 

 1909 One male was shot, and is now stuffed and in the posses- 

 sion of the writer. One female was also shot, but being only 

 winged was unfortunately not retrieved. The above notes are 

 especially interesting in view of the fact that so experienced a 

 naturalist as Mr. J. G. Millais, writes : " Female examples of 

 this hybrid are extremely rare, even on the continent, and I do 

 not know of a British example " (" The Natural History of Game 

 Birds," 1909, p. 1 6). It seems highly probable that female examples 

 of this hybrid, when they occur, are much more liable to escape 

 notice than their more conspicuous brethren : but even so, it is 

 certainly very strange that they should be stated authoritatively to 

 be so rare. In all justice to Mr. Millais, it remains to be pointed 

 out that in the " life-history " (if it may be so called) of the seven 

 Kincardineshire specimens above mentioned, there is to-day no 

 ocular proof of the previous existence of a female bird. The four 

 males of the brood are satisfactorily accounted for; two of the 

 females are believed to have been shot and lost ; the third female 

 would still seem to await a fate which may yet be glorious, as gain- 

 ing for it the title of the first recorded British specimen of a female 

 hybrid resulting from the cross of a Blackcock and a Capercaillie 

 hen. HUGH S. GLADSTONE, Capenoch, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. 



Capereaillie in East Lothian. On iyth December, 1909, Mr. 

 A. M. T. Fletcher of Saltounhall shot in his own woods a female 

 Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), rather small and not very well 

 nourished. Having heard that Mr. J. D. Hope, M.P., had liberated 

 some Capercaillie a few years previously at Letham (which is only 

 5 miles from Saltounhall woods as the crow flies) I went to him 

 about it. He informs me that he reared two male birds from eggs 

 sent to him, one of which he knows was afterwards shot. But as 

 the Saltounhall Capercaillie was a female it was certainly not the 

 other imported bird. H. N. BONAR, Saltoun. 



Occurrence of Anarrhiehas latifrons in the North Sea. On 

 5th February 1910, a "Jelly Cat," Anarrhiehas latifrons, was sent 

 to the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, by Mr. Eunson, fish merchant. 

 It was in a fresh condition, having evidently been captured quite 

 recently. It had not been gutted. The fish, it was reported, had 

 been landed by one of the smaller Aberdeen trawlers, which work 

 in the North Sea, and within a comparatively short distance off Aber- 

 deen. It measured 3 feet 5 inches in length. A small pink-coloured 

 Trematode, found in the stomach, was diagnosed by Dr. Wm. 

 Nicoll, Lister Institute, London, as Lebouria idonea, a form which 

 is common in Anarrhiehas lupus. H. CHAS. WILLIAMSON, Marine 

 Laboratory, Aberdeen. 



[This fish is the " Blue Sea-Cat " of the Norwegians. It differs 

 from its allies A. lupus and A. minor, as follows : the vomerine row 



