ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 245 



and will proceed to India in October to take up the appointment. 

 The Society was founded in 1883, and now its members number 

 some 1200, resident in all parts of India and Burma. By the excel- 

 lence of its work and the value of its publications it has become one 

 of the leading societies of its kind in the East, and has earned and 

 received the generous recognition of the Government of Bombay. 

 During the quarter of a century it has existed the Society has amassed 

 very considerable and valuable collections from all parts of the Indian 

 Empire. Mr. Kinnear, who is a keen and promising zoologist, is a 

 great-grandson of that distinguished naturalist, the late Sir William 

 Jardine, Bart. 



The Editors of the " Annals," while much regretting the loss 

 Scottish Natural History sustains, extend to Mr. Kinnear their best 

 wishes for a career of usefulness and distinction in his new sphere 

 of activity. 



Hedgehog in Argyll. In view of the remarks on this subject 

 in Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley's "Vertebrate Fauna of 

 Argyll and the Inner Hebrides " (1892), the following extracts from 

 my diary during a visit to Ballachulish in 1893 may be of some 

 interest as supplementing the occurrences which have since been 

 recorded in this Magazine (see "Annals." 1901, p. 233 ; and 1902, 

 pp. 50 and 117). "29/72 August. Mrs. Campbell" (wife of Dr. 

 Campbell, who was, I believe, lessee of the Ballachulish quarries) 

 " showed me a Hedgehog found by her gardener on the hillside 

 near their house." " ist September. I saw the gardener, who stated 

 that it was the first he had seen in the locality, and that a man at 

 the quarries said he had not heard of one being seen in the neigh- 

 bourhood for quite ten years. On the same day we saw a Mole." 

 A. HOLTE MACPHERSON, London, W. 



Great Grey Seal in the Firth of Forth. Perhaps it might 

 interest your readers to know that on the afternoon of 2yth July 

 I saw, in the bay to the north-west of Rossend Castle, Burntisland, 

 a Great Grey Seal (Halichcents gryp/u/s}. It was not over 60 yards 

 from the shore, and I could quite easily identify it by its size, shape 

 of the head and neck, and grey colour of the skin. It came up 

 twice, and I had it under observation on its reappearance the 

 second time very particularly. Being seated in the 1.35 train from 

 Edinburgh, which had only drawn up waiting the signal to enter 

 Burntisland Station, I had no opportunity of seeing where it 

 eventually went to. I pointed it out to the occupants of the 

 carriage, and they remarked on its large size. Being a native of 

 the county of Orkney, and thus quite familiar with the appearance 

 of these seals in the water, I had not the slightest hesitation in 

 identifying the animal. Is not this a rather unusual occurrence 

 in a busy waterway like the Forth ? F. SEATTER. 



