202 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Dr. Saxby in his " Birds of Shetland " says : " It is a fierce and 

 formidable bird : not only does it compel other birds to supply its 

 wants, by intercepting them when carrying fish and taking it from 

 them by force, but it will sometimes make a prey of the unfortunate 

 bird itself instead of its fish, killing even birds as large as a gull. 

 The strong curved claws and powerful bill, hooked at the point, are 

 weapons with which no bird that flies will care to have much to do, 

 wielded as they are with such consummate daring. Skuas often 

 procure food for themselves or their young by robbing the gulls' 

 nests of the fish which are carried there by the old birds. Round 

 one Skua's nest I once found thirty-nine full grown herrings, all 

 headless." It is obvious that those three careful observers, who 

 never took facts second-hand, did not regard the Great Skua as a 

 mere parasite-bird. In a land where owls are seldom seen, hawks 

 not numerous, magpies conspicuous by their absence, moles, stoats 

 "and sich like" unknown, the Great Skua may be useful if he is 

 admitted to be a destroyer of vermin. Doubtless he has his part to 

 do in keeping nature's balances nicely adjusted. — Jessie M. E. 

 Saxby, Edinburgh. 



Eledone eirrosa, Lama?rk, in the Solway Firth. — This species 

 is well known to me as a rather infrequent visitor to places on the 

 shores of more open waters than we have on our own coasts ; and I 

 have not hitherto seen or heard of it in the restricted waters of the 

 Scottish Solway. It was therefore with pleasure that I received a 

 specimen from Mr. Hugh Kerr, Newabbey, on the 20th of May last. 

 It had been caught near Burnfoot by a "haafer." The specimen 

 measured about twenty-three inches across its outstretched tentacles. 

 This is an interesting addition to the list of Squids and Cuttles 

 already noted as visitors to the Firth. — Robert Service, Maxwell- 

 town. 



Diaptomus castor, Jurine, in the Braid Ponds near Edin- 

 burgh. — During a visit to the Braid Ponds in August 1888, I 

 collected some Entomostraca, comprising Copepoda, Ostracoda, etc., 

 and a few of the specimens were selected and put aside for after 

 examination. Attention to other matters caused them to be 

 forgotten, and it was only the other day, when I was looking over 

 some odd things, that they were observed. On examining them I 

 was able, with the help of Professor G. S. Brady's excellent " Revision 

 of the British Species of Fresh-water Cyclopidaa and Calanidae," 

 lately published, to identify Diaptomus castor, Jurine, among the 

 organisms from the Braid Ponds. This Calanid was formerly 

 considered to be a moderately common species, and as a member of 

 our fauna its distribution was believed to be, and probably is, co- 

 extensive with the British Islands, but Professor Brady when 

 preparing his " Revision " does not appear to have observed D. 

 castor among any of the Scotch fresh-water Calanidae submitted to 



