i86 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



at Rathen, Aberdeenshire. I fear there is some mistake. Rathen 

 parish is in the north-east corner of Buchan, a district I know 

 well. A part of the parish borders the sea at Inverallochy for 

 a little distance. The parish is wholly under cultivation and below 

 200 feet elevation above sea-level; very much of it under 100 feet 

 elevation ; only in the south-west of the parish does the land rise 

 abruptly to 700 feet to form the hill of Mormond. No one would 

 expect for a moment to find the Snow-Bunting breeding in such a 

 district, and I suspect the eggs are varieties of the common Bunting, 

 Emberiza miliaria a characteristically abundant bird of the district. 

 I may add it is comparatively easy to become possessed of Snow- 

 Bunting's eggs in Buchan. Buchan seamen, fishing in the Arctic 

 Regions, are in the habit of bringing home Arctic eggs, and I never 

 received any Arctic eggs without those of the Snow-Bunting being 

 amongst them. I have received 50 on a single piece of thread 

 from a Peterhead seaman, and I have seen in a labourer's home 

 the kitchen window festooned with Little Auk's eggs. WILLIAM 

 SERLE, The Manse, Duddingston. 



Gemmous Dragonet (Callionymus lyra) in Shetland Seas. 



There was captured on a sea-line, about a mile off Boddom, on the 

 south-east coast of the mainland, in April last, a male specimen of 

 this brilliantly-coloured fish. Not having seen one like it before, 

 I sent it to Mr. Eagle Clarke for identification ; and he also 

 informs me that there appears to be no previous record for this 

 species in the Shetland seas, but that its occurrence is not 

 surprising, since it has been obtained in Scandinavian waters, and is 

 not very uncommon on the coasts of the Scottish mainland. 

 T. HENDERSON, Jun., Dunrossness, Shetland. 



Early Appearance of Eristalis tenax, Z., in the Forth 

 District. Whilst at Gullane on Saturday, 23rd March, about 

 2.30 P.M. I found three female specimens of Eristalis tenax, L., 

 which were kindly identified by Mr. Grimshaw. As the date is 

 very early for these flies, he has asked me to give particulars of 

 their capture. They were on the sand at the mouth of a small 

 damp cave situated about two and one-third miles north-eastward 

 along the coast from Gullane, at a place marked on the Ordnance 

 Map as " Hanging rocks." The wings of a fourth specimen were 

 lying on the sand near the three I procured. The mouth of the 

 cave faces almost due north, and being about half-way down the cliff, 

 the sun's rays would be completely excluded. R. D. R. TROUP, 

 Edinburgh. 



[Verrall, in his " British Flies," says of this species, " my dates 

 extend from i4th February to 22nd November, but I expect it may 

 occur at any time."- P. H. G.] 



