248 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



on iyth May. This is the latest date I have hitherto recorded for 

 the occurrence of this bird on the Mull coast. Being belated, it 

 only remained for one day. This year's bird and the one of last 

 year (3oth April-2nd May), had clearly wintered further south, and 

 their appearance was synchronous with an influx of Lesser Black- 

 backed Gulls (Larus fuscus). A peculiarity in the bird of this year 

 was that the feathers were puffed out in a wonderful manner, com- 

 pletely altering the general appearance of this trim and elegant gull. 



1 believe Faber, from observation in Iceland, noticed this peculiarity 

 under certain circumstances. D. MACDONALD, Tobermory. 



Salmo fario v. Salmo salar. Unwilling to recognise the 

 virulence of a blood feud between two noble families nearly akin to 

 each other, I have always cherished the hope that the alleged 

 mischief done by river trout upon their migratory cousins was 

 exaggerated by those interested in salmon preservation. Unhappily, 

 during this year two flagrant instances have been exposed under my 

 eyes of the injury wrought by Salmo fario upon Salmo salar. The 

 first was in the river Helmsdale, where a common trout weighing 

 intact, i^ lb., took a trout fly, and was found to contain seven 

 salmon smolts. I did not see the smolts taken out of the fish, but 

 they were shown to me in a jar of spirits afterwards. The second 

 case was even more remarkable. Fishing the Rauma river, in 

 Norway, at the end of last May, my companion killed a trout of 



2 Ibs. on a salmon fly nearly three inches long. My attention was 

 attracted by the distended state of its abdomen. I opened it with 

 my own hands, and found no fewer than ten salmon smolts ; pretty, 

 silvery fellows about five inches long. Another trout of i^ lb. 

 weight, which took my salmon fly the same morning about half a 

 mile distant from the other, contained nothing but a mass of gravel, 

 with debris of larvae. This suggests that all river trout do not yield 

 to the same depraved appetite ; for the smolts were making their 

 annual migration at the time, and one of these fish had as good a 

 chance as the other of preying upon them. But it is clear that 

 some individuals of the fario race are as destructive to salmon as 

 any pike. There is no instance on authentic record of retaliation, 

 even on the part of a kelt salmon. HERBERT MAXWELL. 



Chimsera monstrosa in Hebridean Seas. For the past ten 

 days previous to July 2Qth considerable numbers of the enclosed 

 remarkable looking fish have been caught on long lines in deep 

 water by the fishermen working out of Loch Roag. This is the 

 first time in the memory of the oldest fisherman in the district that 

 such fish have occurred. J. MACKENZIE, Stornoway. 



[A specimen of Chimccra monstrosa received. EDS.] 



Andrena helvola in the Forth District. Among some aculeate 

 Hymenoptera sent by me recently to Mr. Edward Saunders for 



