84 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



we saw abundance more about the North Cape, and also about 

 Hitland [ = Shetland] and England." 



These accurate and critical remarks on the Fulmar, and on 

 much else relating to both the fauna and flora of Spitzbergen, 

 prove that Martens was an accomplished naturalist, and his name 

 is worthy of being associated with that of Scoresby another 

 whaling captain distinguished for scientific attainments of a high 

 degree. Wm. Eagle Clarke. 



Nesting of the Shoveler in the Lothians. Strangely 

 enough, the only published record of the actual finding of a nest 

 of this duck in the Lothians appears to be that in Jardine's 

 Naturalisfs Library (vol. xiv., p. 128) of a nest and eggs "procured 

 somewhere about Guillon Links on the Firth of Forth," prior to 

 1843. For a good many years past the Shoveler has bred regularly 

 at Threipmuir Reservoir, in Midlothian, where on 19th May 19 10 

 I put two ducks off their nests containing eleven and ten eggs 

 respectively. Other dates on which I have seen nests there are 

 7th j\Iay T917 (eleven eggs) and 17th May 1918. I first saw the 

 species on this reservoir in December 1898, and a female was shot 

 there on 3rd August 1899. A pair seen in May 1904 were evidently 

 nesting. \\\ East Lothian, on 12th June 1909, I observed two 

 drakes, and a duck with several ducklings following her, on a pond 

 at Biel, and was shown an egg which had been taken from a nest 

 there in May. The marsh where Mr R. Godfrey saw a drake 

 Shoveler in April 1896 {Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1897, p. 43) is not 

 far from Biel. William Evans, Edinburgh. 



Black Terns on the Kelvin. On the evening of 4th May, 

 when visiting some of the marshes which adjoin the River Kelvin, 

 I was agreeably surprised to find, hawking over one of them, a pair 

 of Black Terns {Hydrochelidon n. tiigra). Their prey appeared to 

 be some species of insect which was in process of emergence from 

 the water. Mr John Robertson and I were fortunate enough to 

 see them again on the evening of 6th May over the same marsh, 

 when they remained hovering over it for some time ; but eventually 

 they rose to a considerable height and took what was, evidently, 

 their final departure, as I saw nothing of them on the evening of 

 7th May. The marsh referred to is only about two miles distant 

 from where an immature bird of this species was shot on i8th 

 September 1918 (vide Scot. Nat., 1918, p. 266). D. Macdonald, 

 Glasgow. 



