ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 113 



entangled in the fishing-net of a. Portessie boat, and, being captured, 

 was landed at Buckie. I examined it a few days after, and iden- 

 tified the species, though the colour was somewhat abnormal. The 

 fins and flukes of the tail had been cut off, so that exact measure- 

 ments could not be taken. The total length of the animal was 

 about 7 feet. The colour was black above, changing to gray along 

 sides and on ventral surface; with only a narrow white stripe along 

 the median ventral line ; very little white on the snout, which 

 projected about 3 inches beyond the forehead. The lower jaw 

 projected about an inch beyond the upper. The skull measured : 

 total length, 18 in.; breadth, behind orbits, g| in.; height, 8 in. ; 

 length of rostrum, 9 in.; length of mandible, 14^ in.; teeth, ff 

 and |-f, the largest were -^ of an inch in diameter. It is stated by 

 Mr. Evans in his " Mammals of the Edinburgh District " that this 

 species has only been found on our coasts in July, August, and 

 September. I thought this species worth recording, as no mention 

 is made of it in Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley's " Vertebrate 

 Fauna of the Moray Basin." WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde. 



Hyperoodon rostrata in the Moray Firth. In November 

 1894 a male of the Common Bottlenose Whale was cast ashore at 

 Burghead. The specimen measured 24 feet 6 inches in length, 

 and was 13 feet in girth. Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley men- 

 tion only two occurrences of this Cetacean in their " Fauna of 

 Moray," and the specimen now recorded does not appear to have 

 come under their notice. WM. TAYLOR, Lhanbryde, Elgin. 



An Old Note on Ailsa Craig 1 . I have never seen any writer on 

 ornithology alluding to the subjoined note on Ailsa Craig, and it 

 will no doubt be new to many readers of the "Annals." I make 

 the quotation from Robertson's ' Historic Ayrshire," in which there- 

 is reproduced a " Description of Carrick in 1696, by William Aber- 

 crummie, Episcopal Minister of Maybole." Abercrummie states, 

 speaking of the people of Carrick that : " They have plenty of 

 poultry, hens, capons, ducks, geese, and turkeys, at easie rates ; and 

 for wild-foul, partridge, moor-foul, blackcocks, pliver, no place is 

 better provided : besyde, store of solan-geese in so great plenty, that 

 the very poorest of the people eat of them in their season, at easie 

 rates : besides other sea-fowls, which are brought from Ailsa, of the 

 bigness of ducks, and of the taste of solan-geese, and are called 

 Albanacks or Ailsa cocks, and Tarnathans, of which there is so great 

 a multitude about that Isle, that when, by the shot of a piece, they 

 are put upon the wing, they will darken the heavens above the 

 spectators. This Ailsa is a rock in the sea, in which those solan- 

 geese nestle and breed ; in which also there be conies and wild 

 doves."- -JOHN PATERSON, Glasgow. 



[The Albanack, or Albunac, or " Ailsa Cock," is, we believe, the 

 Puffin ; and the Tarnathan the Guillemot. EDS.] 

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