66 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



find, visible in the upper jaw, a row of small teeth. The teeth 

 protruded above the level of the gum' for rather less than half an inch, 

 and exhibited in plan an almost square section lying close to one of 

 the cavities into which a tooth of the lower jaw had fitted. Seen in 

 elevation the teeth showed a flat crown, slightly hollowed in the 

 middle. The exposed part of the tooth was quite unlike the 

 sharp tips of the rudimentary maxillary teeth of the Sperm Whale 

 described and figured by Sir William Turner in Ann. Scot. Nat. 

 Hist., 1904, p. 7., pi. i. ; and the fact that the crown was flattened 

 and polished, apparently by friction, indicates that in this case the 

 maxillary teeth were functional. That the use of such teeth is not 

 to be considered altogether abnormal is shown by a statement made 

 to me by Mr Carl F. Herlofson, that he had on previous occasions 

 observed teeth protruding from the upper jaw of Sperm Whales. — 

 A. J. H. Edwards, Royal Scottish Museum. 



Greater Wheatear in Argyll.— In the Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. 

 for July last, page 137, it is stated that the Greenland or Greater 

 Wheatear (Saxicola cenanthe leucorrhoa) was recorded for the 

 first time in 19 10, from Argyll. As I reported in the migration 

 schedules their appearance in Mull both in the spring and autumn 

 for some years back, the statement needs correction. I am certain, 

 also, that I mentioned a habit this variety has of perching on high 

 trees, and I now find that Booth in his " Rough Notes " has 

 drawn attention to this peculiarity. In their passage northwards 

 through Mull they were always observed by me in pairs (male and 

 female). They pass southwards through Iona in September in 

 considerable numbers. — D. Macdonald, Glasg- 



ow. 



The Shore-Lark and other Birds on the Haddingtonshire 

 Coast. — Though records of the Shore-Lark (Otocorys alpcstris) 

 in Scotland have not now the novelty they once had, it may, 

 nevertheless, be worth mentioning that on 14th November last 

 (191 1) I met with a party of eight on the coast, about two miles 

 west of North Berwick. They were close up to the foot of the 

 sandhills, running about in search of food among withered tufts of 

 the prickly saltwort. At first they were rather shy, flying off along 

 the beach for a couple of hundred yards or so while one was still 

 at a safe distance ; but they soon became less timid, allowing me to 

 watch them time and again within forty to fifty yards. They were 

 very silent birds, and only once could I say that I heard a note come 

 from any of them. They were subsequently met with in the same 

 place twice in December and once in January. 



