On some Rarities found on the West Coast of Scotland. 327 



orange-yellow; tail blackish brown^ margined exteriorly with 

 yellow. 



Length 4 inches ; bill from gape 5 lines ; wings 2 inches ; tarsi 

 9 lines. 



XL VII. — Notice of some Rarities found on the West Coast of 

 Scotland. By the Rev. David Landsborough. 



In this lazy world a person is often much indebted to the eyes 

 and hands of others in helping him to observe and collect. How 

 helpful might colliers and fishermen be, the former being so often 

 in the bowels of the earth, and the latter by their lines and nets 

 coming so often in contact with the depths of the sea ! But they 

 canna' be fashed. From one obliging fisherman in Milport, 

 island of Cumbrae, who has not learned to say " I canna be 

 fashed/^ I have got many curiosities. He has sent me at least 

 half a dozen examples of Halichondria infundibuliformis, the 

 funnel- sponge. One of them is figured in Dr. Johnston^s inter- 

 esting ^ History of British Sponges.^ The last, got a few months 

 ago, is the variety which ranked for a time as a distinct species 

 under the name of H. ventilabra, and is now in the well-stored 

 and liberally-yielding cabinet of Mr. Bean of Scarborough. 



From the same quarter I got this last summer a piece of iron- 

 stone, which brought up with it some curiosities from the deep 

 sea. It was studded with Crania personata, so firmly cemented 

 to the stone that only the upper valve could be detached. There 

 was on the same stone a specimen of Serpula vitrea of rather rare 

 occurrence. And winding over the surface of the stone, there 

 was something like a flat sea-worm of a flesh-red colour, having 

 at intervals the appearance of round puckered mouths. I thought 

 I had seen its like before, but as I had mislaid the specimen with 

 which I wished to compare it, I sent it to Mr. W. Thompson, Bel- 

 fast, a kind resolver of doubts, who informed me that it was, as I 

 had suspected, Zoanthus Couchii. 



From the same obliging fisherman I got, this summer, Psolus 

 phantapus, which was new to me ; but respecting which I could 

 have no doubt, from its corresponding so well with the figure and 

 description given by Professor Forbes in his ' History of British 

 Starfishes,' &c. 



On the shore at Ardrossan I found this summer, among some 

 sea-weeds, what was new to me, and I believe is rare, Aplysia 

 punctata. Even Aplysia depilans is rare here. 



Acteon viridisy Mont. (sp.). 

 In a little rocky pool of sea-water, about halfway betwixt Bro- 

 dick and Corrie, on the Arran shore, I discovered in July 1844 



