MARINE ANIMALS. 31 



the coast of Sutherlandshire^ in the month of July^ 1850, had an opportunity 

 of seeing many specimens, and were informed by Mr. Mc'Ivor, the Duke of 

 Sutherland's factor, that the Great Black-backs were very so7'e upon the 

 lambs; that they hunted in pairs, and attacked the lambs, which they quickly 

 deprived of sight; and that in the early part of the previous season he had 

 lost thirty. One of these gentlemen having shot a Guillemot from a boat, 

 between the island of Handa and the mainland, was rather taken by surprise 

 to observe a Great Black-back stoop at the quarry, which he immediately 

 began to devour. 



During an excursion which I made to Lochlomond, on Thursday, May 

 20th., I was fortunate enough to discover the nest of the Great Black-back, 

 on a flat marshy island, containing two eggs, which I carried ofi"; this was 

 a very unexpected circumstance, as I have always understood his habits to be 

 more of a solitary nature; he seemed to have fraternized with a colony of 

 about eighty pairs of the Lesser Black-backs, which I scarcely think they 

 considered any compliment; neither do I think his company would be any 

 advantage to another colony of about eight hundred pairs of (Lartis ridibun- 

 dus,) the Black-headed Gull, which have squatted only about four hundred 

 yards from him, on the same island. The appearance and situation of 

 the nests of these last-named birds were very picturesque and interesting; 

 they had selected a number of small islets in the centre of the mossy pools, 

 which were literally covered with their nests, containing, on an average, 

 three eggs each. 



This bird, till within the last few years, was never known to hatch in 

 Lochlomond, although a specimen was occasionally seen in the district. Such 

 is not the case, however, with the community of the Lesser Black-back; 

 for I was informed that they have bred there for upwards of twenty years. 

 But as I never heard of or saw the Great Black-back breeding in the Loch, 

 I must set this down as his first appearance. 



17, Florence Place, Glasgow, October 22nd., 1852. 



MAEINE ANIMALS. 



THE AEGONAUT. 



BY O. S. ROUND, ESQ. 

 C Continued from Vol. II., page 275.) 

 My last paper upon this interesting class of Marine Animals was necessarily 

 confined to general observations upon the formation of the shell, the mode in 

 which it is supposed the animal rises or sinks in the ocean, and the reasons 

 for concluding that the shell is the actual property of the animal, and not, as 

 has been imagined, a shell belonging to some other denizen of the deep, 

 which it parasitically inhabited. I have chosen the term "Argonaut," as 



