120 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



hafne, and taken to Mr. Pow, Dunbar, in whose hands I saw it. 

 One of its legs had been injured, and its poor condition accorded 

 with its inability to save itself by flight. Though well cared for, it 

 survived scarcely four weeks. WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Capereaillie in Dee. I am informed by Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 that nine Capercaillies (Tetrao urogallus) were shot on gth September 

 1907, near Alford on the Don. J. A. HARVIE-BROWN. 



Land-rail at Edinburgh in Winter. On i3th February I was 

 told that one of the gardeners here had about ten days previously 

 (i.e. about the first of the month) discovered a dead Land-rail (Crex 

 crex). My informant told me that when the bird was found it was 

 quite fresh, and had been discovered under a thick shrub, where it 

 had evidently sought protection from the cold. He also told me 

 where it had been placed, and I at once went and examined it. 

 P. M. CAMPBELL, Fettes College, Edinburgh. 



Red-necked Phalarope in the Sol way Area. I have to record 

 a specimen sent me in the flesh on 5th September. It was shot 

 while swimming in the tide close to the shore at Powfoot, near 

 Annan. This is the first local specimen I have handled, and I do 

 not know of another. It seems strange that while the Red-necked 

 Phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus) breeds at points to north or 

 west of Solway, in Scotland, we should practically never see it here, 

 While the Gray Phalarope breeding a thousand miles farther away 

 should occur here with comparative frequency. ROBERT SERVICE, 

 Maxwelltown. 



Leach's Petrel in Aberdeenshire. As there are only three 

 previous records of the occurrence of Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel 

 (Oceanodroma leucorrhoa) in Aberdeenshire, and the last of these is 

 for as long ago as 1884, it will probably be of interest to you that 

 I found an example of that species a few feet above the tide-line 

 on the shore about a quarter of a mile south of the Don, on the 

 5th January 1908. The specimen was quite fresh; it proved to 

 be a female ; its stomach contained only an oily fluid. It is being 

 preserved for the Aberdeen University Museum. A. LANDSBOROUGH 

 THOMSON, Old Aberdeen. 



The Saury or Skipper (Scombresox saunts] in the Solway. 

 I look upon this beautiful fish as a rarity in our waters. Doubtless, 

 it is not really so, because its elongated form enables it to go 

 through the meshes of anything but a shrimp net. I received a 

 particularly brilliant specimen from the mouth of the Nith on igth 

 September. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Aleoehara spadieea, ?-., in Scotland (Tweed Area). I have a 

 specimen of this beetle which I took in a mole's nest about a mile 

 south of Leadburn, and therefore in Peeblesshire, on 3oth March 



