50 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



at Allonby on the gih of September 1899 ; but this species is very 

 local in its preferences. This year we sent young Nicol to the 

 Solway (I could not get away myself) in September ; but he failed 

 to find any Stints, though he found Tot anus canescens more 

 abundant than usual. His father, William Nicol, sen., when 

 shooting on the Wampool and Waver estuary on the 9th of Novem- 

 ber, fired his punt-gun at a mixed flock of Peewits and Dunlins, as 

 the birds were resting on the sand. When he picked them up, he 

 was surprised to find a single Little Stint among his victims. Its 

 head was shattered ; but he sent me its wings, that there might be 

 no doubt as to the species. The date, as he remarks, is late for the 

 locality, but I cannot say that it is unprecedented. H. A. MAC- 

 PHERSON, Pitlochry. 



Sandwich Tern at Peterhead. On yth September, while I 

 was lying at the rocks of Craigievar, north from Peterhead, watching 

 for birds, three adult Sandwich Terns settled on the sand within a 

 few yards of me. I examined them minutely through my glasses, 

 and easily identified them as Sterna cantiaca by the beak, legs, and 

 feet, which were black. WILLIAM SERLE, Edinburgh. 



Fulmar breeding at Cape Wrath. On ioth July last, when in 

 Mr. Henry Evans's yacht "Aster," we passed close under Cape 

 Wrath, between an outlying rock and the mainland. Several 

 Fulmars came circling round the yacht, and then went to the grassy 

 slopes, on which we could see, with our glasses, birds which we had 

 no doubt were Fulmars, sitting. This is some confirmation of Mr. 

 W. Eagle Clarke's remarks ("Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist.," 1897, p. 254) 

 on the probability of this being a breeding-place. The Fulmar may 

 well be spreading, for at Soa (St. Kilda), on 22nd of same month, 

 there seemed to be more than ever ; and the same might be said 

 of the gannets on the Stacks. HOWARD SAUNDERS. 



British Snakes. A new work upon the species of Snakes included 

 in the British fauna is nearing completion, and will be published 

 next year. The author, Dr. Leighton of Grosmont, Pontrilas, near 

 Hereford, is anxious to be favoured with the co-operation of Scottish 

 naturalists, and would welcome any additional notes that they can 

 supply ; especially as regards the dimensions of the Viper in different 

 districts. 



Opah or Kingfish in Shetland Seas. On the 1 4th of Septem- 

 ber last I came across a fine fresh specimen of this fish at high-water 

 mark on the shore of Samburgh West Voe. The specimen was 

 in perfectly fresh condition, but much mutilated by a large party 

 of Gulls and Gray Crows which had been feeding on it. This 

 species is not nearly so rare in these northern waters as was at 

 one time supposed. In the " Fish Trades Gazette " for 8th Septem- 

 ber 1900, it is stated that: "Every year, at, this season, when the 



