246 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



almost to the clasping base where the serratures are 

 shallower, very generally one basal margin broadly inflexed, 

 smooth not papillose ; nerve strong, pale then reddish nearly 

 throughout, latit. near base, .07-. i mm., tapering and shortly 

 excurrent, breadth near apex about .04 mm., serrated on 

 back in upper third and often interruptedly winged or 

 laminated, these downward serratures degenerating into 

 nodules ; cells at central base long with rounded extremities, 

 generally narrow but distinct and separate, .06 -.09 by 

 .006-.011 mm., broader outwards and in five to seven rows 

 at margin as the cells above, cells upwards gradually lessen- 

 ing into the upper, which are bluntly quadrate or bluntly 

 oblong or merely oval, separate and distinct, .014-.022 mm. 

 in long diameter. In the lower leaves the nerve at times 

 scarcely reaches the bluntish serrated apex. Barren. On 

 the ground near the sea and generally near the bases of 

 wettish rocks, Corran near Onich, September 1908. 



This moss still bears slight evidences of its origin, but 

 to drag it back, as some authors of the present day are still 

 doing on account of these traces, is not scientific and 

 certainly not in accordance wdth the modern trend of 

 opinion. 



Erratum. — Page 170, third line from foot,/^r ".2 " read "2". 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Great Cormorant. — I lately shot a Great Cormorant in a loch 

 near my house. A friend cut it open, and we found a kitten, eleven 

 inches long, in the stomach. There were no signs of the kitten 

 having been drowned before it was swallowed. It was certainly a 

 strange thing to find in a Cormorant. — R. C. Haldane. 



White-throated Sparrow at the Flannan Islands. — On the 



1 8th of May 1909 a male Zoiwti-ichia albicoUis was shot about 

 noon, beside the lighthouse on Eilean Mor, Flannan Islands, and 

 was sent to me in the flesh. — Fred. Smalley, Silverdale, Lancashire. 

 [This American species has occurred on several occasions in the 

 British Islands (in Scotland in Aberdeenshire), but it has always 

 been a moot point whether this, and other Nearctic Passeres, have 

 not had an assisted passage from the New World. It may be pointed 

 out, however, that it has a somewhat high northern range, since it is 



