50 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



I recorded for the first time in the Firth of Forth the occurrence 

 of the Amphipod Euthemisto compressa (Goes). The specimens 

 were obtained at Trawling Station V. (west of May Island) in 

 February of this year (1892). These were probably stragglers 

 from the immense shoal that was observed off Redcar during the 

 loth, nth, and i2th of the same month by Mr. Thomas H. Nelson 

 when, according to his description ("Naturalist" for May 1892, 

 p. 144), "the sea was literally alive" with them, and that "heaps 

 of these were afterwards washed ashore by sea winds, and afforded 

 a feast for starlings and other frequenters of the tidal line." Quite 

 recently (25th November), this species was obtained for the second 

 time in the Firth of Forth in material collected by surface tow-net 

 between Fidra and the Bass Rock ; when a few specimens only 

 were taken, and they have been forwarded to the Museum of 

 Science and Art, Edinburgh. Euthemisto compressa is readily 

 distinguished from Parathemisto oblivia (Kroyer), which also occurs 

 in the Forth, by its larger size, its keeled dorsum, and by the 

 two last segments of the mesosome and two first of the metasome 

 being produced posteriorly in the median dorsal line into distinct 

 tooth -like processes. The same species was obtained off the 

 Aberdeenshire coast by Mr. Sim, and recorded by Mr. Spence Bate 

 in the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History" for May 1878, 

 under the name of Lestrigonus spinidorsalis. Like most of the 

 Hyperiidae, Euthemisto compressa is a northern form, and attains its 

 maximum dimensions in the Arctic seas, where, according to Dr. 

 Bovallius, it reaches a length of 30 mm. (i-|- inches). Another 

 species, Euthemisto libellula (Mandt), which is not yet recorded for 

 our seas, attains to a much laiger size, and seems to be a veritable 

 giant among the Hyperiidae. Specimens 60 mm. (2-?- inches) in 

 length, have been recorded from the Arctic seas by Dr. Bovallius. 

 A specimen from Greenland in my collection measures \\ inches. 

 THOMAS SCOTT, Leith. 



Eledone cirrosa in the Firth of Forth. In "Annals of 

 Scottish Natural History," Part 3, p. 202 (1892), there is an 

 interesting note on the occurrence of Eledone cirrosa (Lamarck) 

 in the Solway Firth ; on reading which it occurred to me that some 

 records of the recent captures of this Cephalopod in the Firth of 

 Forth might not be out of place. But before giving these, it may 

 be as well to state, for the sake of the uninitiated, that Eledone, which 

 closely resembles, and may be mistaken for, Octopus vulgaris, is 

 readily distinguished by observing that each tentacle has only one 

 row of suckers instead of two rows as in Octopus ; but though this 

 be a ready and sure means of distinguishing between the one 

 Cephalopod and the other when the animal is at rest, careful 

 examination is nevertheless necessary should it be moving its 

 tentacles about. The suckers composing the two rows on the 



