ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 51 



Northern Diver in full summer plumage which had been shot on 

 22nd April, so, evidently, in America they are a week or so ahead 

 of us in the completely changed condition. — H. W. Robinson, 

 Lancaster. 



Bird Notes from Tiree. — We have had eleven days' shooting, 

 during which two guns got about 1300 Snipe, or, to be exact, 1293. 

 Our best day was 217. A feature of the shooting was the numbers 

 of Woodcock that were about. We seldom used to see more than 

 one or two at this time of year. On the 1 oth November, I put up 

 9 or 10 when walking across a bit of rough ground. The place 

 seemed to be alive with them. They looked tired and only flew 

 a short distance — very unusual at that date. South-east strong 

 winds continued without a break from the end of September until 

 the second w^eek in November. Consequently, Thrushes, Redwings, 

 Fieldfares, Blackbirds, and other small birds were literally in 

 thousands all along the south side of the islands ; whilst Wheatears 

 were still fairly numerous in the first week of November — very late, 

 as they nearly all disappeared w^hen the wind changed to the west. 

 It shows that they are waiting for a change of wind. White-fronted 

 Geese, which used to arrive from 15th to 17th October, did not 

 arrive this year until 5th November ; which shows that the con- 

 tinuous south-east winds kept them back. I dare say, it was the 

 same cause that made the Woodcock and Snipe so abundant here. 

 About the middle of October Mr. M'Kenzie, Scarnish, caught a 

 Gold-crested Wren inside his window. After he had shown it to 

 me, he let it go. A few days later, he got a young Brent Goose, 

 which had got its wing injured against a telegraph wire. He put 

 it in an enclosure, along with a farm Duck, and it has now become 

 quite tame, and will take food out of the hand. Altogether there 

 were tremendous numbers of birds on migration here until the wind 

 changed to the west, when they nearly all disappeared. I expect 

 there may have been some rare birds among them ; but as I was 

 busy at the time I did not have the time to look about for them. 

 I forgot to mention that we have crowds of Swans — both Bewicks 

 and Hoopers. They arrived as early as usual, but they came from 

 the east and north-east, and the south-east winds did not affect 

 them. — Peter Anderson, Tiree. 



Labrax lupus, Cuv., in the North Sea. — A good specimen of 

 this fish, the Basse, measuring 24 inches, and weighing 5 lbs., was 

 obtained on the nth October by trawler "Primrose," skipper 

 David Kidd, fishing 30 miles east of the Bell Rock, and sent to me 

 by Messrs. Cameron and M'Farlane, Dundee. This is the first 

 Scotch specimen that I have seen. Parnell speaks of it as making 

 its appearance now and then in the Firth of Forth, more particularly 

 in the months of July and August ; but the only examples that I 

 have heard of in recent years are two got by Professor M'Intosh 



