126 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Red-necked and Eared Grebes near Dunbar. During January 

 and February last I obtained the following Grebes between Dunbar 

 and Skateraw, namely : an Eared Grebe (Podiripes nigricollis), male, 

 shot on 1 2th January ; and two Red-necked Grebes (P. griseigena), 

 female and male, shot on 5th and iSth February respectively. 

 D. PERCY AITKEN, Dunbar. 



Red-necked Grebes in the neighbourhood of Dunbar. On 



lyth February last I found a dead Red-necked Grebe (Podicipes 

 griseigcna) on Peffer sands, a few miles to the west of Dunbar ; and 

 on the 23rd a very fine male, almost in full summer plumage, was 

 sent here from Cockburnspath to be stuffed : it had been shot. 

 G. Pow, Dunbar. 



Red-necked Grebes on the East Lothian Coast. The stormy 

 weather of January and February last seems to have told somewhat 

 severely on the Red-necked Greb&(Podidpesgriseigena\\.t'vi& may judge 

 by the following instances of examples washed up on the shores of East 

 Lothian. On 2 6th January I found one half-buried, but quite fresh,|among 

 the rejectamenta on the beach a mile or so to the east of Port Seton. 

 On i jth February Mr. Pow picked up another, which he kindly sent 

 me, on the sands at Peffer Burn, between Tynemouth and Tantallon. 

 Then on 22nd February I saw the remains of a third among cast-up 

 seaweed, etc., on the Dirleton shore, and found a fourth (a male with 

 the occipital tufts well developed) newly left by the tide in Gullane 

 Bay. Several, I hear, have been shot in the neighbourhood of 

 Dunbar. Examples of this Grebe are usually to be seen cast up on 

 our shores after a series of easterly gales during the winter months, 

 and individuals are occasionally found miles inland. Numbers were 

 obtained during the winter 1 880-81, and in the beginning of March 

 1888 I examined several which had been washed ashore at Largo, 

 North Berwick, and Granton. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



[Several other Red-necked Grebes have been reported to us. 

 The Rev. Wm. Serle tells us that one was shot at Peterhead during the 

 first week in February. One shot on Loch Earn early in February 

 was presented to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art by 

 Mr. Tom Speedy. Two were shot off Aberdour, in the Firth of 

 Forth, on 8th February, by Dr. Badger and Mr. W. Laidlaw. EDS.] 



Sand Smelt or Atherine in Scottish Waters. From a recent 

 correspondence there seems to be some misunderstanding as to the 

 range of this fish the Atherina presbyter of Cuvier. I am surprised 

 to learn that the Messrs. Anderson, fishmongers, Edinburgh, have 

 never seen this fish before from Scotland. Parnell was acquainted 

 with the fish as from the Forth, where he seems to say that it was 

 formerly more plentiful than in his time. It is not uncommon, 

 although probably local and uncertain, in the West of Scotland. I 

 first met it at the mouth of a stream entering Loch Creran, where 



