42 
The Scottish Natiirahst. 
and females. In 1889 B. juvencus was noted emerging from trunks of larch 
trees growing on Closeburne estate in Dumfriesshire at an elevation of over 800 
feet, and specimens were sent me for identification. In June of this year, 
while in a hothouse at Southwick House, Kirkcudbrightshire, the gardener 
drew my attention to a number of this insect fluttering against the glass roof. 
They had been emerging daily for some time previously. All I saw were 
rather small males. They were proceeding from blocks of rough wood that 
were being used as stands for flower-pots. These blocks had been cut from a 
silver fir growing in the avenue at Southwick, which had become so sickly and 
unsightly tliat it had to be felled. It is extremely probable that the decay of 
this tree had been caused by the ravages of the larvae of S. juvencus. — Robert 
Service, Maxwelltown. 
Testacella haliotidea in Kirkcudbrig-ht shire.— Early last 
April a fine large specimen of this curious mollusk was found in the Corberry 
Nurseries here, and I handed it to Mr. Rimmer, F.L.S., author of La7id and 
Fresh-water Shells of the British Isles, who informed rne that it was of the 
usual type found in Southern England, and agreed with me in the opinion that 
it had been accidentally introduced across the border, most likely in hampers 
of greenhouse plants, or some other nursery goods. Not many days elapsed, 
however, until numbers more of the slug were picked up in and about the 
glasshouses in the nurseries. Some of these were a good many yards away 
from the houses right in the open air. They were in all stages of growth. 
With a little searching now, a specimen or two can be found at any time, more 
especially in a large glasshouse in which Tomatoes are grown. Probably they 
may increase and multiply and so form a permanent colony, for I am not so 
uncomplimentary to my own faculties of observation as to even hint that they 
have been here "all along," but quite overlooked until this season. The 
workmen in the nurseries have christened them " shell back slugs," and they 
receive with extreme dubiety any statement regarding the food of the slugs in 
question which is at variance with that orthodox belief of the gardeners' creed, 
that snails of all sorts are obnoxious beasts to be destroyed at sight ! Mr. 
William Evans tells me there is a previous record of this species in Scotland — 
in Sang's nurseries, Kirkcaldy. There can be no doubt, I think, looking to 
the similarity of locality or habitat, that in both instances this interesting slug 
has been introduced unintentionally from the South. — Robert Service. 
W^ild Cat in Shetland. — Mr. J. G. Laurenson, while shooting rabbits 
on October 7th, on the clifif east of Bressay Lighthouse, encountered a wild 
cat, also in pursuit of the rabbit. He shot at the cat and wounded it, when 
it sprang at him while he was in the act of again firing, and though it received 
its coii^ de graceh^ the shot, it tore his wrist. It weighed 15 lbs. and measured 
30 inches from the nose to the tip of the tail. (Thomas Marshall, Zoologist^ 
1890, p. 454.) 
