llie Scottish Naturalist. 261 



15. Tufted Duck {Fuligula cristata, Leach). — This is also a 

 rare duck with us. I know of three having been got in the 

 district : one — a male — was shot on the Tay, at Ballathie, in the 

 spring of 1875; and in May 1877 a pair were killed with one 

 shot on a mill-dam within a mile of Stanley. They would likely 

 have bred with us had they not been killed. It is a plump, 

 round-made bird, and is considered good eating. It is lively and 

 active on the water, and a very expert diver. 



The female is of a dull rufous-brown colour, except the under 

 parts, which are white mixed with grey. 



16. Scaup {Fuligula uiarila, L.) — The Scaup in its general 

 character and habits resembles the Pochard very much, but it 

 keeps to the sea more than the latter. 



The Scaup is wholly a winter visitor to this country, arriving 

 in autumn, and departing in spring for the far north to breed. 

 It frequents the sea-coast and estuaries, especially where the water 

 is shallow and muddy. Two years since, I observed many in 

 the Tay near Dundee, where they were in flocks of ten or twelve. 

 My father shot a female in the pond at Stormontfield eight years 

 ago : this is the only one I have heard of being got in the district. 



The male resembles the Pochard pretty much, but its head is 

 of a greenish-black colour, and the eye is light-yellow, which in 

 the Pochard is red, and the head is of a chestnut colour. The 

 female is dark brown on the back, and the under parts are 

 white, tinged with red, and it has a white patch on each 

 cheek. 



Stanley, by Perth, January 1880. 



"Water-Spider [Argyronela aquatica, Clerck) near Aberdeen. — Among a 

 handful of water-weeds gathered by me in a marsh on Scotston Moor, near 

 Aberdeen, in October 1878, and examined for the usual microscopic organ- 

 isms of such localities, I was surprised to discover a male Water-Spider. It 

 lived in a jar in which some of the weeds were grown, apparently obtaining 

 sufficient food from small Crustacea and larvae, which swarmed in the water. 

 On the approach of the present winter it became torpid, and seemed to be 

 dying ; so, to make sure of the species, it was carefully examined, and there- 

 after put into spirits, after it had lived over fifteen months in the jar. This 

 seems to be the first notice of the occurrence of this species in Scotland, as 

 it is not noticed in Mr Cambridge's list of Scottish Spiders published in the 

 * Zoologist ' in 1877. In England it seems to be best known in the midland 

 counties. Probably it is much more widely distributed than is generally 

 supposed, its habit of living under water rendering its discovery somewhat 

 more difficult than with other spiders.— James W. H. Trail, Aberdeen, 

 26th February 1880. 



