70 
The Scottish Naturalist. 
killed dead, and the fact of a boat having to be got, as the retriever, 
when reaching the bird, refused to touch it, some time therefore 
elapsed before it could be picked up, and as is the case in most 
sea-birds, the fresh contents of the stomach would have been 
ejected. The Guillemot has also been frequently got on Loch 
Tay. 
In connection with the sea-birds visiting fresh water I may men- 
tion that with regard to the Scaup ( Fuligula ??mrila ) being found 
inland and shot near Glasgow, as stated by Mr. Robert Read in the 
last number of the " Scot. Nat." p. 39 — that in the Tay district they 
are not unknown to our fresh waters, several instances of their cap- 
ture occurring on Loch Rannoch, many miles from the sea. And 
specimens from that locality have been forwarded to the Perthshire 
Society's Museum in Tay Street, Perth. It has also been got on 
Methven Loch, four or five miles on the other side of Perth, and on 
the Tay above Seggieden, where, as before stated, the water is fresh ; 
and an instance will be found in the "Scot. Nat.," 1880, p. 340, re- 
corded by myself of a female Scaup taking up its quarters in the curl- 
ing pond at Seggieden, for about three weeks, during which time it 
fed almost entirely on a species of water snail then literally in thou- 
sands {^Livmcea peregra), which it seems to have entirely extermin- 
ated, as the species has never been found since. I may further 
mention that this pond is frequently visited by ducks from the river 
close at hand. On the Clyde, where the Scaup is an exceedingly 
more abundant bird than it is on the Tay (I speak of some years 
ago), I have seen large flocks as high up as Bowling, only eight or 
nine miles below Glasgow, so that it would not be difficult for a stray 
bird to ascend that distance or even higher, should tiiey still fre- 
quent the Clyde as they used to do. 
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE PRESER- 
VATION OP THE GREAT SKUA. 
T T / E learn with pleasure that the great Silver Medals of the 
V V Zoological Society of London have been awarded to 
Mrs. Edmonston of Buness House, and to Mr. Robert Scott of 
Melby, in recognition of the effective protection accorded by 
members of their families, for 60 years, to the Great Skua {Stercor- 
arius cafarrhades), at its breeding stations in the islands of Foula 
and Unst. 
