250 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Black-tailed Godwit in Barra. On her return from the north 

 of the Long Island, Her Grace the Duchess of Bedford shot a 

 Black-tailed Godwit at Eoligary, Barra, which will be preserved and 

 find a resting-place in the collection of local birds formed by the 

 Messrs. MacGillivray of Eoligary. It was shot by her on yth 

 September 1907. Her Grace perfectly identified the bird before it 

 was shot, and I am informed of the above facts by Mr. Wm. 

 MacGillivray in lit. igth September 1907, with the additional 

 information that so far as he, Mr. MacGillivray, is aware, " this is 

 the first record of the species for Barra." J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



Black-throated Diver on the Aberdeenshire Coast. On the 

 3oth of January 1907 a Black-throated Diver (Colymbus arcticus) 

 was shot at the mouth of the Don ; it is now in Marischal College 

 Museum. Mr. Sim ("Vertebrate Fauna of Dee") said in 1903 

 that he had had only one specimen through his hands in forty 

 years ; thus, although there has been another since, it seems to be 

 very rare in this district. A. LANDSBOROUGH THOMSON, Aberdeen. 



The House Cricket (Grylhis domesticits) in an old Quarry near 

 Edinburgh. One associates the House Cricket so entirely with 

 ovens and fireplaces, that I was almost incredulous when my son 

 told me he heard dozens " chirping " in an old quarry west of 

 Slateford, near Edinburgh, on the evening of 25th June last. On 

 2oth July he heard them again, and this time brought home three 

 in support of his statement. I then visited the place myself, and 

 found the insects quite numerous, and at all stages from newly 

 hatched young to full-sized adults. They were living under a layer 

 of rubbish, including pieces of old furs, corsets, the stuffing of 

 chairs, tin cans, etc., that had been from time to time deposited in 

 the quarry. 



No doubt the crickets have been introduced into the quarry 

 with some of the rubbish, and it will be interesting to see if the 

 colony survives the winter in the open. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



False-Scorpions of the West of Scotland. Since writing my 

 note for the July " Annals " I have detected two other species in the 

 West of Scotland. 



Cheiridium museorum (Leach) has been obtained in the two 

 widely separated counties of Ayr and Ross. In the former county a 

 number of specimens were taken by myself in a meal-mill at Dairy 

 on 29th June, and in the latter a single adult was discovered by Mr. 

 G. A. White in a hay-barn at Balmacara on 26th August. 



This species builds nests for the various purposes of moulting, 

 reproduction, and resting. But it differs to some extent in its re- 

 productive habits from our other Scottish species. Sometimes the 

 female follows the course adopted by Obisium and Chthonius of shut- 

 ting herself inside her nest and retaining her embryo mass attached to 



