76 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



The bird under consideration is a female, and possesses 

 all the characteristics of the species. It has a short, stout, 

 curved bill, the basal portion of whose upper mandible is 

 not overhung by plumes ; the upper plumage is blue-black 

 (showing a greenish hue in certain lights), except the 

 medium and primary coverts, which are dark brown ; the 

 wing measures 8.45 ins. from the carpal joint, and the 

 tarsus 1.4 ins. Judging from the size of its bill, which, 

 measured along the curve of the culmen, is only 1.2 ins. 

 in length, I consider it to be a bird of the year, that is to 

 say, about five months old. There is no patch of white 

 behind the eye, that tint on the sides of the head being 

 confined to the region well below the eye and extending from 

 the gape backwards. I mention this character specially, 

 because the white patches on the side of the occiput are 

 present in adult specimens of this species in winter plumage, 

 and also in common Guillemots both young and old at that 

 season. The Forth specimen resembles exactly the bird 

 in the background figured on plate 40 of vol. vi. of Lord 

 Lilford's " British Birds," except that its bill is more decidedly 

 curved. 



THE AQUATIC COLEOPTERA OF THE 

 SOLWAY DISTRICT. 



By FRANK BALFOUR-BROWNE, ALA. (Oxon.), F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. 



PLATE I. 



IN spite of the fact that so keen a collector as the late Mr. 

 William Lennon spent his life in the district, and although 

 the late Professor M'Nab did some collecting there, and Dr. 

 Sharp also spent some years at Dumfries, very little has 

 been published on the Coleoptera of the Solway district. 

 In the bibliography I have included the only 14 papers 

 which I have been able to find. 



Dr. Sharp defined the Solway district as "the part 

 drained by rivers between the Liddel and Culzean Castle " 

 ("Col. of Scotland," 1871). This area includes the counties 

 of Wigtown, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries, part of Ayrshire, 



