ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 5? 



steam liners are fishing to the west of Shetland, rarely a week 

 passes without a Kingfish, and as many as three have been obtained 

 in one shot. As they frequent very deep water, all have been got 

 on the hook ; and further, as they are so easily scaled, it would 

 scarcely be possible that a trawled fish would be fit for exhibiting, 

 unless netted when the gear was about to be hauled up. As to 

 price, scaled and damaged fish have sold as low as 6s. 3d. each, 

 while best specimens seldom fetch more than 303. nowadays, but 

 all depends on quality and demand. Some years ago, when they 

 were considered very rare, as high as 2 : zos. was paid." WM. 

 EAGLE CLARKE, Edinburgh." 



The Sturgeon in the Solway Firth. The Sturgeon (Acipenser 

 stitrio) is a summer visitant to the estuaries of the Solway Firth. 

 In the first part of the nineteenth century, a deep channel ran 

 along the Cumbrian coast to Rockliffe Marsh, and it is very likely 

 that these big fish sometimes succeeded in reaching the rivers in 

 which they presumably desired to spawn, though for many centuries 

 they had to run the gauntlet of the " Haaf-nets." But since the 

 deep channel has become silted up, these large fish almost always 

 fail to force a passage into the Eden or Esk. 



On the 2nd of July 1900, John Byers, an old acquaintance 

 of mine (he helped me to disinter a Long-finned Tunny a few- 

 years ago), secured a Sturgeon on the sands at Skinburness, near 

 Siloth. It weighed 35 stones (not 45, as locally reported), and 

 measured about 10 feet 6 inches. A portion of this "muckle fish" 

 was sent to the Queen at Windsor. On the loth of the same 

 month, the same fisherman was setting some nets at night, when 

 he heard a mighty splashing in the water. On hastening to the 

 spot, he found that a second Sturgeon had become partly stranded. 

 He stunned the fish with blows from an iron stake, fastened a rope 

 through the gills, and left it so moored. He returned to secure it 

 by daylight. This was a female fish, measuring about 6 feet 

 6 inches, and weighing about 16 stones. H. A. MACPHERSON, 

 Pitlochry. 



Valvata piseinalis and Anodonta eygnea in West Lothian. 

 Both of these shells occur in ponds on the Hopetoun estate, where 

 I found them on iSth June last. The former occurs in great 

 abundance in the pond nearest Woodend ; and the latter, specimens 

 of which measured nearly 5 inches across, is fairly plentiful in 

 another of the ponds. Neither species of shell has, so fnr as I 

 am aware, been previously recorded from the county. ROBERT 

 GODFREY, Edinburgh. 



Vertigo antivertigo in West Lothian. I found a small 

 colony of this minute mollusc in Blackness marshes on i5th 

 August ; this is, I believe, an addition to the county list. ROBERT 

 GODFREY, Edinburgh. 



