156 Some Peculiar Ocairrences in Natural History. [Sess. 



swallows, which was caught last summer in rather an odd 

 way. While a party of gentlemen were out in a boat, fish- 

 ing for sea-trout, some little way from the mouth of the river 

 Findliorn, and near the village of the same name, the bird 

 in question, which was passing the boat overhead at some 

 little altitude, made a sudden swoop, and in a second rose 

 again into the air carrying the line with it, having the hook 

 attached thereto firmly fixed in its bill. The lure used was 

 what is known as the india-rubber tube. Immediately all 

 was excitement in the boat, as the bird made frantic efforts 

 to break away, at the same time causing the line to run off 

 the reel at a great rate. The fortunate or unfortunate fisher 

 who made the unexpected capture played the tern in the 

 most approved style, so that gradually the poor bird's 

 struggles became weaker and weaker, until ultimately, on the 

 line being bit by bit shortened, and pressure thus brought to 

 bear on the captive, it sank exliausted into the boat, when it 

 was found necessary to kill it before the hook could be 

 extracted. At the time the bird was hooked there appeared 

 to be no terns in the vicinity, but in response to the cry of 

 distress uttered by the captive, scores of terns came from all 

 quarters, so that when the bird was taken into the boat and 

 killed, the operation had to be performed in presence of quite 

 a " cloud of witnesses." The tube is used in fishing in much 

 the same manner as the artificial fly, and is supposed to re- 

 present a sand-eel, but I have repeatedly caught trout and 

 finnock with it, at portions of the river where the tide 

 never reached, and where, consequently, sand-eels could not 

 exist. I remember once, in the vicinity of the sandhills of 

 Culbin, picking up a tern which had one of its wings 

 injured, and taking it with us into the boat, when we left 

 to cross to the other side of the bar. The bird was perfectly 

 fearless, and ran about among our feet, from one end of the 

 boat to the other. On nearing the pier we let down a line, 

 with the intention of catching a few " podlies," or " queedies," 

 as they are called in that district, and soon had one and then 

 another in the boat. On looking round, we found that our 

 friend the tern had bolted the first-caught " queedie," and to 

 a certain extent had disposed of the other also, only there 

 appeared to be a hitch somewhere, as the bird sat, apparently 



