144 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Dunlin. This spring evidence of their nesting in Berwickshire has 

 gone as far as it can well go. On 18th May Lord Dunglass and I 

 visited the Dunlin ground. Seme distance from the reach of the 

 moors where they have generally shown themselves, a bird rose 

 quite close to us. On approaching the place we found the nest 

 among white benty grasses, a shallow hollow in the ground lined with 

 bents, and not in any way concealed above. There were three eggs 

 in it which resembled miniature Curlew's an olive green ground 

 colour, heavily blotched towards the larger end with purplish brown 

 markings. The bird left the nest silently, and everything pointed 

 to the clutch being incomplete. In the course of our walk we saw 

 several other Dunlins, some of whom seemed to be nesting. 

 W. McConachie, Lauder. 



Trout feeding on the Heather Beetle. On examining 

 some trout caught in Loch Awe on 21st and 22nd April last, it 

 was found that their mouths and throats were crammed with small 

 dark-coloured beetles. On the first of these days trout were seen 

 rising in large numbers, but very few were induced to take any 

 artificial fly; on the following day hardly a trout was seen to move, 

 but the few that were taken were again found to have been feeding 

 on these beetles. It seemed as if on the first day they were taking 

 them largely on the surface, and, on the next day, below. The 

 circumstances were quite novel to me, although a fishermen of 

 many years' experience; but a boatman asserted that it had 

 happened before, and that he had known experienced fisherman 

 to say that it was time to go home when these beetles were present 

 in numbers. Being doubtful as to whether the beetles were of an 

 aquatic or of a land species, a number of them taken from a trout 

 were sent to Mr Percy H. Grimshaw, of the Royal Scottish 

 Museum, for identification. The result is of some interest, as they 

 were found to be the Heather Beetle, Lochmcea suturalis. Mr 

 Grimshaw's surmise is that they were washed into the hill-streams, 

 and so down into the loch by the recent heavy rains, alive or 

 dead. They would thus be found by the trout at first floating, and 

 afterwards when water-logged, submerged. As they were present 

 in such large numbers far out in the loch, it does not appear likely 

 that they had got there by flight; nor did my informant observe 

 any of them on the wing. Chas. H. Alston, Letterawe, Loch 

 Awe. 



