126 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



thing like such numbers as in the beginning of 1895. The first I 

 heard of them was from Mr. D. Bruce, Dunbar, who reported one 

 found in an exhausted state on the railway embankment near there 

 on 1 5th January; others were seen just off the town the same day. 

 On 3rd February he again wrote me to say that the fishermen 

 reported large numbers in the mouth of the Firth between St. Abb's 

 and Fife Ness ; also that on the previous day he had three specimens 

 brought to him, and had heard of others being got at Spott and 

 other inland localities. On ist February one was found at Aberlady 

 and taken to Mrs. Bryden ; and about the same date two were shot 

 close to Portobello Pier. On igth February I saw altogether thirty- 

 one in the hands of the city taxidermists : most of these specimens 

 had been "sexed," and with one exception were females. WILLIAM 

 EVANS, Edinburgh. 



Little Auk in Renfrewshire. -Mr. John Lang, Greenock, has 

 kindly sent me word that a Little Auk (A tea alle) was picked up dead 

 on 6th February this year near the Cloch Lighthouse. JOHN 

 PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Vertigo substriata in Midlothian. On 8th ult. (March 1897) 

 I found a fresh specimen of this tiny shell on a patch of damp moss 

 (Mnhem punctatiiin} in Dreghorn Valley, Pentland Hills, near Edin- 

 burgh. I do not think the species has previously been reported for 

 the county. The specimen has been submitted to Mr. J. W. 

 Taylor, F.L.S., for " authentication."- WILLIAM EVANS, Edinburgh. 



A New Station for the Water Spider. Argyroneta aquatica has 

 been found at the Braid Hills in the course of the investigations 

 which are being carried on at the ponds there by Mr. T. 

 Scott, F.L.S., F.Z.S., and myself. This station is the pond at 

 the southern side of the Braids known as the Elf Loch. About 

 1885 two members of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists' Society, 

 Messrs. Archibald Gray and A. B. Herbert, found this interesting 

 spider the one at Luffness, the other at Bavelaw. Mr. Herbert 

 then predicted that it would yet be found nearer the city, and now 

 two members of the same Society have discovered it to be present 

 in the loch above mentioned. JOHN LINDSAY, Edinburgh. 



Noetua depuneta and Mania maura and its vars. in Roxburgh- 

 shire. When sugaring some trunks here for Noetua in the begin- 

 ning of August last, I took a specimen of Noetua depuncia on a 

 trunk of spruce fir, settled amongst other common insects such as 

 G. Pronuba, X. Polyodou, etc. Mr. C. G. Barrett has seen the 

 specimen, and notes this as a new locality for it. Mania maura 

 at same time was not uncommon on the trunks, and I took eleven 

 fine specimens, including the coppery-brown coloured variety, and 

 another intermediate between the typical form and it, with the 

 orbicular and reniform spots having a distinctly paler outline, and 



