8 The Scottish Naturalist. 



ambush out of sight, to discover what should next occur; and it 

 was this : Beauty with stealthy creep approached the hall door, 

 raised himself on his hind legs, with his fore paws deliberately 

 drew down the bell-wire, till he set it loudly ringing, then a 

 swift scamper, a spring on to the dressed table, a seizure of the 

 meat thereon, and as rapid a retreat to demolish his ill-gotten 

 spoils, and the conclusion — the usual one — that Beauty's fel- 

 low received Beauty's thrashing in place of himself, for having 

 stolen what he never took at all. And these tricks actually 

 went on for months ; Beauty invariably managing the other 

 should be exclusively punished for his own peccadilloes ; and 

 of course as the latter, in his innocence, was always to the 

 fore, and the former, protected by his guilty " conscience," 

 never, it was easy enough to misjudge as to the real culprit 

 each time." (To be continued.) 



Addition to the List of Shetland Coleoptera. — On turning out some 

 bottles of unset specimens, from Shetland, collected there last July, we find 

 several examples of Pterostichits oblongo-pimctatus, which were bottled 

 among, and as, vitreus. This species must, therefore, be added to the list 

 we furnished to the October number of the Scottish Naturalist ; and, we 

 now believe, that it is much commoner than vitreus in Shetland. This is 

 somewhat remarkable, as there are no fir-trees on the Islands, and, indeed, 

 not a good-sized tree at all ; M'hereas the locality mentioned for oblongo- 

 punctatus, by Schaum, is "woods;" and, by Dr. Sharp, "fir- woods." — 

 Thomas Blackburn and C. E. Lilley, Greenhithe, Kent. 



Ivory Gulls at Aberdeen. — On Monday, the 17th November, while 

 hunting among the pools left by the tide, I observed, near Aberdeen Pier, 

 two gulls of a much lighter colour than any of the others, which were flying 

 about. On getting to the top of the pier they were more distinctly seen, 

 coming close to where I stood, exhibiting a want of shyness differing much 

 from the herring and black-headed gulls among which they were. They 

 frequently alighted on the water at the foot of the pier, picking up garbage 

 as it came from the city sewer, which enters the tide at this point, and being 

 thus within about four yards of me there was no difficulty in deciding what 

 they were — viz., the Ivory Gull, Larits eburneus. When flying they kept 

 continually emitting a low sound, similar to the squeak of a rat, which 

 became louder if any of the other species came near them. Returning the 

 following morning to the same place, in company with my friend Mr. W. 

 Robb, curator, Marischal College, we were again fortunate in seeing both 

 birds, one of which fell to Mr. Robb's gun. Our time being limited we 

 had to leave without getting a chance of the second one ; this, however. 

 we hoped to do the following morning, and were there by daybreak, but 

 failed to see it. Next morning however, the 19th, fortune favoured Mr. 

 Robb, and the second was ours. The first killed bird (which now graces 

 Marischal College Museum) measured 18 inches in length ; extent of wings, 

 37 inches; wing from flexure, 12 inches; tarsus, \)i inches; the primaries, 



