ii8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



manner. After a gale from the north-west, the bird was observed in 

 the vicinity of the houses. A hooked line, attached to a rod, was 

 baited with fish and placed on the green. The would-be captor had 

 not long to wait. The bird took the bait and endeavoured to fly off, 

 but the rod proved too much for it, and it was easily secured. 

 This specimen is a male in immature plumage, but is not a very 

 young bird, for there are no black spots on the upper and under tail 

 coverts, or on the back ; while the chin is only slightly barred with 

 gray, and the dark shaft stripes on the wing-coverts are very obscure. 

 WILLIAM EAGLE CLARKE. 



Black Guillemot ( Uria gryllc) in black or breeding plumage in 

 winter. In our books on Ornithology the plumage of this bird is 

 said to be grayish white in the winter, and black with a white patch 

 on the wing in the summer. Considerable numbers of them breed 

 in the rocks on the Barra coast, and during the breeding season 

 they all seem to be in the black plumage ; at any rate, I never 

 saw any in the gray, although I carefully watched during the last 

 two or three seasons. The most of the birds leave us in the autumn, 

 but a few remain during the winter. On the i5th of February of 

 this year I saw one bird in the black or full breeding plumage, and a 

 day or two after that I came across three more, all in the same 

 plumage. Two of these were accompanied by companions in the 

 gray plumage, the third being a solitary bird. Now, I think 

 these birds must have retained the dark plumage during the 

 whole winter, as the date is too early for them to have acquired 

 the summer dress completely if they had lost it in the autumn. 

 I notice that Mr. Nicol, a lighthouse-keeper in Shetland, observed 

 in 1888 that the old birds retained the black plumage during the 

 whole year, and that it was only the young birds that were gray in 

 their first winter. I think he is right, but the matter is worthy of 

 further observation. JOHN MACRURY, Barra. 



The Palmated Newt (Molge palmipes) in West Ross-shire. On 

 the 4th of June last we captured several specimens of this Newt in 

 Loch Coire nann Faradh, in the Applecross district. In 1848 Mr. 

 Wolley recorded ("Zoologist," 1848, p. 2265) this species for the ex- 

 treme north of Sutherland. In 1880 Mr. E. R. Alston wrote (" Proc. 

 Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow," 1880, p. 149), commenting thus upon this 

 Sutherlandshire record, " We are not aware of this species having 

 been found in any other parts of the North Highlands."- LIONEL W. 

 HINXMAN and W. EAGLE CLARKE, Edinburgh. 



The Palmated Newt (Molge palmipes) in Mid-Perth. In May 

 last, while staying at Fearnan, on the north side of Loch Tay, I found 

 the Palmated Newt in abundance in a ditch by the road leading to 

 Kenmore under the shelter of Drummond Hill. For many weeks 

 previous to iSth May practically no rain had fallen in the district, 

 and the thick layer of dead leaves which well nigh filled the ditch 



