52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



pair of Spotted Redshanks, a pair of Greenshanks, and a few Lap- 

 wings were together. These we watched for a long time in a 

 favourable light at a distance of about twenty paces. The Spotted 

 Redshanks were in spotted and dusky, but changing plumage, the 

 white stripe from the bill to the eye being well defined. Their call 

 note, though very distinct, seemed to resemble considerably that of 

 the Common Partridge. Early in September M'Culloch and Son, 

 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, received a Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa 

 belgicd) to preserve. On inquiry, this specimen was found to have 

 been shot by Mr. Gilmour of Barrhead, near Caldwell, in Neilston 

 parish, a little beyond our limits; but on 2ist September we had 

 several good views of a second example at Balgray Dam. Both of 

 these were birds of the year. The note of the Balgray bird was a 

 "kip," occasionally uttered once, but usually repeated, similar to a 

 note emitted by Black-headed Gulls when quarrelling among them- 

 selves. JOHN PATERSON and JOHN ROBERTSON, Glasgow. 



Black Tern in the Firth of Forth. On the yth of August last I 

 saw a Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigrd) near Aberlady. It hawked 

 about for some time, keeping mainly to the course of the Peffer 

 Burn, and then disappeared over the trees near the bridge. The 

 bird was in adult plumage. T. G. LAIDLAW, Edinburgh. 



Sharks in the Moray Firth. On Saturday, yth October last, a 

 large male Basking Shark (Selache maxima) was stranded at 

 Kingston, and was said to have lived twenty hours after, as it lay 

 on the beach near high-water mark. It was a full-grown animal, 

 and probably an old one. It measured total length, 30 feet ; girth, 

 14 feet; length of pectoral fin, 6 feet; breadth, nearly 4 feet. The 

 first gill-cover was 6j feet long ; claspers, nearly 4 feet long ; and the 

 tail was 6-^ feet across. Hundreds of people went to see it. Mr. 

 Muirhead of Fochabers and others took photographs of it. Several 

 newspapers had it reported as a whale ! Another Shark, probably of 

 the same species, was seen alive within three miles of the same 

 place, and near the shore. The Porbeagle (Lamna connibica) has 

 been common in the Moray Firth during the past year. Two were 

 stranded at Nairn in September last, and one east of Lossiemouth 

 last year. WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde. 



Larger Spotted Dog-fish in " Clyde." The "North British Daily 

 Mail" of nth December contained a paragraph stating that the 

 Girvan great line boats fishing off Lendal on the gth had caught seven 

 Dog or Hound Sharks ; some measured about five feet in length and 

 twenty-four inches in girth, and the females were full of well-developed 

 eggs. The paper further stated that the species is known as hound 

 dog-fish or rock-shark, S. catulus. On communicating this to Mr. 

 Thomas Scott, F.L.S., he writes me: "This record is of special 

 interest, because the species is a rare one in the Clyde ; so much so 



