238 Miscellaneous. 



alcohol or aether. The best test for Theine is ammonia, which, when 

 added and heated to dryness, gives a beautiful rose-colour precisely 

 similar to murexide. From the facility with which Theine is ob- 

 tained and its tonic qualities, it is probable that it may be ere long 

 used medicinally as a substitute for quinine and other remedial agents 

 of a similar nature. — J. H. B. 



SULA MELANURA. 



" In our ornithological memoranda we neglected to state that 

 during our stay at St. Kilda, a black-tailed Solan Goose was men- 

 tioned to us as being occasionally seen intermingled with the other 

 and more common kind. We at first regarded this as an accidental 

 variety, but we have since recalled to mind that there is a distinct 

 species described by naturalists under the title of Pelecanus melanurus, 

 so called from the character in question. We believe that this is 

 the first ascertained instance of its occurrence in any of the British 

 Islands." — /. Wilson, Voy. round West. Isles, vol. ii. p. 113, note. 



CAPTURE OF BOTTLE-NOSED WHALES. 



There has been recently a considerable capture of bottle-nose 

 whales at the island of Eday, amounting to between sixty and 

 seventy. They were generally of fair dimensions, about fourteen feet 

 long on an average ; and on being sold by public roup on the Mon- 

 day following, brought 146/. — Inverness Courier. 



NOTE ON PAGURUS PRIDEAUXII. 



There is an omission in my notice of this species in the last Num- 

 ber of the ' Annals,' p. 103, which, in consequence of the obscurity 

 thereby occasioned, is perhaps worth correcting. The comment on 

 Dr. Leach's observations should have been, not to the effect that it 

 was singular that P. Prideauxii inhabits so many different species of 

 shells, but, that there should be no allusion to its connexion with 

 Adamsia (Actinia) maculata, with which species I have always found 

 it associated. I had already mentioned in this Journal (vol. v. p. 251) 

 the occurrence of the Pagurus in Trochi [T. cinereus, &c.] and Bulla 

 lignaria : — to these may now be added Buccinum undatum and Natica 

 Alderi. The smaller shells thus resorted to, as the last-named, and 

 Trochus cinereus, may be said to have merely formed the apex of the 

 tenement, as " the thin horny expansion attached to the aperture of 

 the shells, and forming as it were an extension of the body- whorl in 

 a spiral form *," constituted from one-half to two-thirds of the entire 

 habitation of the crab. 



Dr. Coldstream, in treating of the Actinia maculata obtained by him 

 at " Torbay, and in Rothsay and Kames bays in Bute," remarks, 

 that the shell which it covered was " always found inhabited by a 

 variety of the hermit-crab." The "variety" thus alluded to was 

 probably P. Prideauxii. By Dr. Coldstream and also by myself, the 

 Actinia and Pagurus under consideration have always been found as- 

 sociated. Dr. Leach makes no mention of their connexion ; and Mr. 

 Edw. Forbes states that not a single specimen of the Actinia taken 



* Dr. Coldstream in Edin. New Phil. Journ. vol. ix., and copied in John- 

 ston's British Zoophytes, p. 219. 



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