(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



L I 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 30.] 1914 [June 



EDITORIAL. 



A RECENT publication by Dr S. F. Harmer, issued officially 

 by the British Museum, is devoted to a Report on Cetacea 

 stranded on the British Coasts during 191 3. At the 

 request of the Trustees of the Museum the Board of Trade 

 issued, in 191 2, instructions to receivers of wrecks to report 

 at once by telegraph to the Museum any stranding of 

 whales which came under their notice, and the present 

 interesting report owes its origin to the scheme which was 

 thus inaugurated. The number of specimens reported during 

 the year in question was seventy-six, and of these a dozen 

 were from the Scottish coasts. The largest number of 

 records was from the North Sea, and of these the majority 

 occurred on the coast of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The 

 Lesser Rorqual (Balmnoptera acutorostratd) is recorded from 

 Collieston (Aberdeen), Arbroath (Forfar), Crail (Fife), and 

 probably Tarbat Ness (Ross and Cromarty); a Common 

 Rorqual (Bakenoptera phy salus) occurred at Dunnet Head 

 (Caithness), on 8th July. Full details of all the occurrences 

 are shown on three maps (England and Wales, Scotland, 

 and Ireland), which accompany the Report. 



A paper by Herbert Campion, on " Some Dragon-flies and 

 their Prey," 1 is one of the most interesting entomological 

 contributions of the month. These fine insects are well 



1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., May 1914, pp. 495-54- 

 30 Q 



