NOTES ON SCOTTISH CUMACEANS 215 



During the trawling experiments conducted on board the 

 "Garland" for the years 1886 to 1895 inclusive, thirty-seven examples 

 of the "Flapper Skate" are recorded as having been captured in 

 1886 and 1887, and none afterwards. Of these twenty-one were 

 mature and the rest immature fish. It is very remarkable that the 

 only specimens obtained should have been taken during the very 

 earliest years of the " Garland's " important observations. Is it pos- 

 sible that a mistake was made in the identification of the species ? 



RAIA ALBA, Laccpede. 



Raia oxyrhynchus, PARNELL, pp. 427-429. " Occasionally met with 

 in the Firth of Forth " (fide Neill), " but no example has 

 hitherto fallen under my own immediate notice. I cannot vouch 

 for the accuracy of the statement." 



Three White Skate were captured in the Firth on the i2th of 

 June 1888 : one, 24 inches, at Station 3 ; and two, 21 inches, at 

 Station 4 ("Rep. Fish. Board. Scot.," 1888, part iii. p. 38). 



TRYGON PASTINACA (Linnaeus). 



PARNELL, pp. 440-442. "The only example I have met with . . . 

 was captured in the Firth of Forth in the salmon-nets above 

 Queensferry in the month of August, and sent me as being the 

 only fish of the sort the fishermen had ever seen" (p. 441). 



The Sting Ray appears to be an extremely rare fish in the waters 

 of the estuary and their immediate vicinity. I only know of a single 

 instance of its occurrence since Dr. Parnell's record. In December 

 1897 I examined a specimen, 14.5 inches in extreme length and 6 

 inches broad, which had been captured off the Isle of May. 



NOTES ON SCOTTISH CUMACEANS. 

 By THOMAS SCOTT, F.L.S. 



THE new work on the Cumacea of Norway by Professor 

 G. O. Sars, which is now in course of publication, will tend 

 greatly to facilitate the study of this aberrant, but peculiarly 

 interesting group of Crustaceans. This work, which forms 

 volume iii. of Professor Sars' " Crustacea of Norway," will, 

 like the two preceding volumes, be found indispensable to 

 students of the British Crustacea, because the majority of 

 the species hitherto observed in our seas are also 'represented 



