NOTES 23 



some years since the last influx occurred in the Clyde area. — 

 Charles Kirk, Glasgow. 



The easterly gale has brought in a number of Little Auks, and 

 I enclose one herewith which was shot at Portobello on the 12th of 

 December for the Royal Scottish Museum. — W. A. Nicholson, 

 Portobello. 



[The appearance of the Little Auk on our eastern coast, 

 and inland, is as much a meteorological as an ornithological 

 phenomenon, for it is entirely to strong easterly gales which 

 drive them from their pelagic winter quarters that their advent is 

 due. There are other records of their occurrence which have come 

 under our notice. Among them are the following : — One found 

 dead at Toxside, near Rosebery, on the i6th of December; one 

 killed against telephone wires at Hardoun, Kincardineshire, about the 

 i6th of December; and one found in an exhausted condition in a 

 wood on Orcill Moor, Braco, Perthshire, about the same time. Others 

 are reported from Liberton, Rosslynlee, Nairn, Forres, etc. — Eds.] 



A Curious Habitat of Amphipod Crustacea. — In the early 

 summer of 19 14 there was presented to the Royal Scottish Museum, 

 by Mr Milburn, fishmonger, Edinburgh, a moderately large Cod- 

 fish roe upon and within which clustered hundreds of Amphipod 

 Crustacea. These had attacked and devoured a great part of the 

 roe. As the result of inquiries it was made perfectly clear (i) 

 that no cut or artificial incision penetrated from the exterior of the 

 fish to the cavity within which the roe lay; and (2) that the roe as 

 received by us was in exactly the state in which it had been found 

 within the body of the fish. One is forced therefore to the con- 

 clusion that the Amphipods — which belonged to the species 

 Hoplotiyx similis, G. O. Sars — had actually entered the body cavity 

 through the genital aperture to feed upon the roe. Such entry 

 would be facilitated by the fact that in the spawning season (and 

 the present cod was "ripe") the genital opening is frequently much 

 extended. 



Many Amphipods have been known to prey upon the flesh of 

 dead fishes placed as bait in crabpots and such like, or even upon 

 the bodies of fishes caught on fishing lines, where, for example, 

 Hoplonyx cicada has been found "clinging in innumerable swarms." 

 The cod specially referred to in this note was caught by sweep net 

 in the Moray Firth, and I think we may infer, from the known 

 habits of Amphipods, that it was not until it was caught and possibly 

 dying or dead that the fish was attacked by the voracious sea- 

 scavengers. — James Ritchie, Royal Scottish Museum. 



;L1 3R A R Y' 



