ZOOLOGY. 



EAEE CETAOEA ON THE SCOTTISH COASTS IN 1884. 



Megaptera longtmana Bud. — All our readers interested in the fauna of our 

 seas will recollect the pursuit of a large whale in the Tay, and its subsequently 

 being found floating dead off the coast of Kincardineshire. Probably many of 

 our readers have seen the carcass, which was preserved and conveyed through the 

 country for public exhibition. The skeleton has, we understand, been presented' 

 to the Dundee Museum. This species of whale has been taken very seldom on 

 the British coasts. 



Delphinapterus leucas Pallas [Beluga Catodon Z.) the Beluga or 

 White Whale. — Of this species also but very few examples have been taken on 

 our coasts. We believe the last example till this year was captured near 

 Dunrobin. Its tail had been caught between two of the stakes of a salmon 

 net. On April 30th of this year another example was obtained on the coast of 

 Caithness, at Dunheath, where it was entangled in the salmon nets. It was- 

 forwarded to Professor Struthers of Aberdeen University, and was inspected 

 by crowds of people in one of the quadrangles of Marischal College, where it 

 was allowed to remain for two or three days to afford an opportunity to all 

 interested of seeing the rare visitor to our coasts. It was a female, 12*5 feet 

 long ; pectoral fins, 16 inches long by 10 inches broad ; tail-fin 32 inches 

 broad ; blow-hole, 18 inches behind snout ; ear, very small, 6 inches behind 

 eye; teeth, 9 in each side of each jaw. Good' photographs of the animal 

 were taken while lying in Marischal College. — Ed. Sett. Nat. 



BIKDS AS ENEMIES TO TURNIP OEOPS. 



The following statements appeared in the Aberdec7i Free Press of 

 May 31st and June 2nd, 1884 : — 



A New Enemy to the Turnip Crop. — A new enemy has appeared 

 among the turnip crop, which threatens to prove a source of considerable 

 annoyance and loss to the farmers. Frost, fly, tinger-and-toe, farmers arc 

 accustomed to encounter and fight against among their turnips ; but hitherto, 

 at least in this part of the country, the birds have not attacked this the most 

 costly of all the crops. The turnip crop has been started this season under 

 moderately favourable auspices, although in some instances frost and fly 

 have hurt the young plants. But in certain districts of Kincardine and 

 Aberdeen shires, the birds by the hundred have begun to feed voraciously upon 

 the seed just as they appear above ground, and before the blades are opened- 

 The tops of the drills are thickly covered with the slender stalks attached to 

 the seed, which shows the great havoc the little depredators are making among, 

 the braird. For some time farmers were puzzled to know the cause of the 

 damage to their crop, this being the first time they had ever observed anything. 

 of the kind. But they soon [discovered what it was, and means have been 



