34 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



birds from outlying parts of the British coast. Through 

 Mr. Newstead's kind help I got into communication with a 

 man who visits St. Kilda every year, and I arranged with 

 him to send me nests of the Gannet, Cormorant, or any 

 other he could get. At the same time I thought it worth 

 while to give him a bottle for any beetles he might pick up, 

 and instructed him to get me some hay-stack refuse and 

 some sheep's dung. He carried out these instructions well, 

 getting me Gannets', Cormorants', Fulmar Petrels', and 

 Rock-Pipits' nests. I was disappointed in finding nothing 

 very rare in the beetle line ; but one flea, taken in the 

 Gannets' or Cormorants' nest, turned out to be new to 

 science, and was described under the name Ceratophyllus 

 borealis, sp. nov., by the Hon. N. C. Rothschild, in the " Ent. 

 Mo. Mag.," xviii. I I. It was extremely interesting 

 examining this mass of rubbish, although some of it the 

 Cormorants' nest, for instance was by no means pleasant 

 to the olfactory nerves. This year I obtained more nests 

 and some moss, or rather " sphagnum." Altogether I am 

 able to record 49 species from the island. Most of these 

 are generally distributed species, but some are decidedly 

 local, and one, viz., Homalota cavifrons, Sharp, rare. 



By this method of collecting I am able to record some 

 of the smallest British beetles from St. Kilda, which would 

 never be noticed except by a specialist, and I would suggest 

 that besides giving bottles for beetles to friends who may be 

 visiting these outlying islands, they should be instructed to 

 pull up a bagful of moss, etc., and fill another bag with hay- 

 stack refuse. 



The following is a list of the beetles I have taken from 

 St. Kilda : Carabus catenulatus, Scop. ; Pterostichus niger, 

 Schall. ; Calathus cisteloides, Panz. (these were the only three 

 in the bottle I supplied) ; Cercyon littoralis, Gyll. (very 

 common in Gannets' and Shags' nests made of seaweed) ; C. 

 ftavipes, F. ; Megastemum boletophagum, Marsh. ; Aleochara 

 moesta, Grav. (these were named for me by Mons. Fauvel) ; 

 Homalota circellaris, Grav., H. cavifrons, Sharp (sphagnum) ; 

 H. trinotata, Kr. ; H. nigricornis, Thorns. ; H. sericea, 

 Muls. ; Myllcena brevicornis, Matth. (sphagnum) ; Tachyporus 

 ckrysomelinuS) L. ; Tachinus rufipes, De G. ; T. laticollis, Grav. ; 



