94 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Work done by the Watchers' Committee of the R.S.P.B. 

 in Scotland in 1916. An interesting account of the work done 

 by the Watchers' Committee of the R.S.P.B. is issued in the 

 winter number of Bird Notes and News. In almost every locality 

 mentioned, an increase of the rare species, which these Watchers 

 guard so carefully, is noted. The Scottish reports are probably of 

 most interest to readers of our magazine, and here it is gratifying 

 to be able to report from Shetland "particularly good news . . . 

 of the Great Skuas." Further, " In the Orkney area, Phalaropes 

 seem increasing in numbers every season, and a great many different 

 kinds of birds hatched off; all seem getting more plentiful." The 

 Gannet nested for the first time on Noss, and from Shetland one 

 Watcher says, " No eggs were taken this season. The Fulmar and 

 all the others are doing well." All this is evidence of the excellence 

 of the work done by these Watchers towards the preservation of 

 our rarer breeding birds. 



Tadpole-fish on the Coast of East Lothian, Pirth of 

 Forth. On ioth February (191 7) I found a Tadpole-fish 

 (Raniceps raninus) on the shore about a mile and a half east of 

 Port Seton, East Lothian. It was being washed in by the tide, 

 and though in a somewhat battered condition was still sufficiently 

 fresh to admit of my taking it home for detailed examination. The 

 length was almost exactly 9 ins., and the peculiar smell alluded 

 to by Day {British Fishes, i., 321) was distinctly noticeable. There 

 are only four or five previous records of this curious fish for the 

 Firth of Forth, the last being from Largo Bay, Fife, by Misses 

 Rintoul and Baxter in this magazine for 19 12, p. 68. William 

 Evans, Edinburgh. 



Note on an Apparently Rare British Wood-louse 

 (Ligidium hypnorum, Cuv.). The genus Ligidium was founded 

 by Brandt 1 in 1833, and up to the present time some dozen or 

 more species have been described. 



Only a single species is known to occur in the British Isles, 

 the Oniscus hypnorum, of Cuvier. Described by the great French 

 anatomist in 1792,*-' this species was very imperfectly understood 

 until placed by Brandt in a separate genus Ligidium. Un- 

 fortunately, Brandt changed the specific name, and it was not 



1 Bull. Soc. Nat., Moscow, 1833, vol. vi., p. 174. 



2 Journ. d'hist. nat., 1792, vol. ii., p. 19. 



