1 84 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Early Hatching- of the Tufted Duck in Caithness. The 



Tufted Duck (Fuligula cristata) is one of our latest nesting species 

 of Duck, the normal time for laying in Scotland being the first week 

 in June. In Midlothian the earliest date on which I have seen the 

 young is 25th June. I was therefore surprised to find this season 

 in Caithness a female attended by nine young on a " dhuloch," on 

 6th June; in this case the bird must hi've begun to lay by 4th 

 May at latest. Not only the date, but also the locality of the 

 Caithness nesting-haunt referred to is interesting : the bird was 

 frequenting a small peat-hole partially overgrown with bog-bean. 

 Though such nesting-haunts are not unknown in other parts of 

 Scotland there being one such summer station in Midlothian 

 they are the exception. ROBERT GODFREY, Edinburgh. 



The Viper in the Pentlands. During an excursion of the 

 Scottish Natural History Society to Auchencorth Moor on the 

 7th of May, one of the party, Mr. Charles Traill of Edinburgh, killed 

 a Viper. The specimen measured 26 inches in length, and weighed 

 exactly i Ib. As the Viper appears to be of very rare occurrence 

 in the Pentlands and in the Forth district generally, this capture 

 may be worthy of record. J. B. DOBBIE, Edinburgh. 



On the oeeurrenee of Cyclops nanus, G. O. Sars, and Cyclops 

 languidus, G. O. Sars, in Loch Boon, Ayrshire. These two species 

 of Cyclops were obtained in a shore gathering from Loch Doon, 

 collected by means of a hand-net on the 3ist of March last. Cyclops 

 nanus is, as the name signifies, a small species, and in this case 

 might have been the young of a larger kind, but as several of the 

 specimens carried ova, there could be little doubt as to their being 

 mature. Professor G. S. Brady, to whom I submitted specimens, 

 considered them to be identical with the Cyclops nanus described by 

 Professor Sars. There does not seem to be any British record for 

 C. nanus previous to this. It may also be remarked that in C. 

 nanus the antennules are eleven-jointed. Cyclops languidus is also 

 comparatively a small species, and though it has previously been 

 recorded from England, this is, I think, the first record of its 

 occurrence in any Scottish freshwater loch. C. languidus belongs to 

 the group distinguished by having the antennules seventeen-jointed, 

 but in this species the third and fourth joints are coalescent, so that 

 the antennules appear to have only sixteen. This coalescing and 

 subdividing of the joints of the antennules is an interesting feature 

 in Cyclops, and has given rise to a considerable difference of opinion 

 as to whether certain species are " true species," or merely " forms " 

 of some species having the full complement of joints. Even in 

 the present instance there appears to be a tendency on the part of 

 some authors to consider Cyclops nanus as a modified " form " of C. 

 languidus, and in view of this it is somewhat significant that both forms 

 were found in the same gathering from Loch Doon. T. SCOTT, Leith. 



