The Annals of Scottish Natural History for January 1893, P
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RETURN TO LIBRARY OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY WOODS HOLE, MASS. LOANED BY AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY The Annals OF Scottish Natural History A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED Haturalfet EDITED BY J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS* UNION JAMES W. H. TRAIL, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN AND WILLIAM EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S., MEM. BRIT. ORN. UNION NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT, MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART, EDINBURGH 1894 EDINBURGH DAVID DOUGLAS, CASTLE STREET LONDON: R. H. PORTER, 18 PRINCES ST., CAVENDISH SQUARE LIST OF PLATES I. New and Rare Scottish Spiders. II. Scottish Desmidiese. Plate II. III. Paltzospondylus Gunni, Traquair. IV. Scottish Desmidieae. Plate III. V. Feathers of Red Grouse ^ . VI. Feathers of Red Grouse J. VII. Dictyna arenicola, Cambridge. VIII. Scottish Desmidieae. Plate IV. The Annals of Scottish Natural History No. 9] 1894 [JANUARY * NOTE ON THE SKELETON OF A SPECIMEN OF RISSO'S GRAMPUS (GRAMPUS GRISEUS}. By R. H. TRAQUAIR, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. " " IN the Annals of Scottish Natural History for January 1893, p. I, Mr. R. Service records the occurrence of two specimens of Risso's Grampus Grampus griseiis (Cuv.) in the Solway Firth. One of the specimens that stranded near Carsethorn Mr. Service was able to examine in its entirety, and to his good offices the Museum of Science and Art is indebted for the opportunity of obtaining its skeleton. The bones, roughly divested of the flesh, were forwarded to Edinburgh, and have been prepared in the Natural History workshop of the museum. Unfortunately, the hyoid and pelvic bones were found to be missing, while the sternum was otherwise the skeleton is It slightly injured ; perfect. is now exhibited in the Mammalian collection of the Museum. The specimen when recent measured, according to Mr. Service, 8 feet in length, but the length of the mounted skeleton is feet inches the difference due to only 7 5 ; being the shrinkage of the intervertebral disks in drying, as well as to the fact that the caudal termination of the vertebral column does not reach quite to the posterior margin of the tail flap. The skeleton is that of a individual young (female) ; 9 B 2 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY the epiphyses being ununited, the sternum remaining in three pieces, and the teeth having been still covered by the The is of course edentulous the teeth of gum. upper jaw ; the lower jaw, three on each side, displayed in the prepared skeleton, being placed near the symphysis. They vary from -?- to of an inch in the anterior the shortest : -| length, being calcification, though not complete, has extended considerably below the margin of the crown. But the most noteworthy peculiarity of the skeleton is the remarkable want of lateral symmetry displayed by the pectoral limbs and by the anterior part of the sternum. The left is one inch than the the former flipper fully longer right ; i latter i inches in measuring 3^-, the 2-^ length. No difference in size is observable in the scapulae or humeri of the two limbs, but the radius and ulna are at once seen to be larger on the left side. On the left flipper the 2nd digit has 8 the six while on the these ossifications, 3rd ; right members are respectively 7 and 4. In the normal adult the number of 1 these ossifications are 10 in the 2nd, and 8 in the 3rd digit. The sternum consists of three pieces, of which the anterior is very unsymmetrical, being much larger on the left than on the right side of the mesial line. The left side of the second has been cut the third is piece unfortunately away ; piece symmetrical. This want of lateral symmetry in the limbs constitutes the principal point of interest in this skeleton, and I am not aware of any similar case having been recorded in any of the Cetacea. ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE RED-BREASTED FLYCATCHER (MUSCICAPA PARVA] IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES. and By J. A. HARVIE BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S., WM. EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S. THANKS to Mr. Wm. A. Tulloch, one of the keepers at the Monach Islands lighthouse, we are enabled to add another record to the few visits of this species to Britain, and to 1 For these and other details regarding the skeleton of Grampus gi'iseiis, see Sir William Flower's paper in "Trans. Zool. Soc., London," vol. viii. pp. 1-21. THE STOCK DOVE IN SCOTLAND 3 indicate a considerable extension to its known range as a wanderer. This is one of the successes accruing to our annual inquiries into the migratory movements of birds in and around Scotland, to which Mr. Tulloch is a valued contributor. A Red-breasted Flycatcher was captured at the Monach Island, some thirteen miles west of North Uist, on the 22nd of October 1893, and was forwarded to us in the flesh. " " This specimen, though far gone when received, has by careful treatment been made into a passable mounted specimen, and has been presented by Mr. Tulloch to the collection of British Birds in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. The bird is a young male of the year, and agrees well with most of the published descriptions, the four central tail feathers being black. The crop contained, strange to say, several seeds of the canary-grass (Phalaris canariensis) in a stained condition, but the gizzard was quite empty. Though this summer visitor to Central and Eastern Europe has on one occasion, in 1883, occurred north of the Tweed, namely at Berwick, yet it has not hitherto been recorded in Scottish territory at least Mr. Muirhead ex- cludes the county of the borough and town of Berwick-on- " Tweed from the area treated of in his Birds of Berwickshire." ON THE EXTENSION OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE STOCK DOVE (COLUMBA (ENAS} IN SCOTLAND. By J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. ON the 2 ist February 1883 I read a paper at the meeting of the Royal Phys. Soc., entitled "On the Stock Dove (Columba anas], with remarks upon its extension of range in Great Britain." Since that date I have obtained additional evidence of the very rapid and remarkable increase of this species and its farther extensions. This I propose to epitomise in the present paper, because it is thought that separate studies of single species whose increase and ex- tension of range are phenominally rapid and regular are 4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY amongst the best materials possible to enable naturalists to arrive at the larger and wider questions connected with distribution and migration. In my previous paper I have with sufficient exactitude traced the spread towards the north through England into Scotland : in the present paper I purpose simply to record chronologically the facts as ascertained, and continue my previous series, and make a few concluding remarks. From the last-dated records of the former paper there- fore viz. at Gartmore, Vale of Menteith, I5th January 1883; and Garden (nest and eggs) I4th April 1883 we start afresh. 1 A very visible increase has since occurred from localities east of the central range of the Stirlingshire hills, many localities being known to me where Stock Doves have bred to the south of and the birds also Stirling ; have become common as far west of Stirling as Aberfoyle, penetrating in this direction well up the valleys among the hills, as clearly shown by our correspondents Mr. James Stirling of Garden, Col. Duthie of Row, Doune, and others, to whom the bird has indeed become familiar since its first-recorded advent in 1883. But while the species has thus spread across between Forth and Clyde, and penetrated far up the Forth valley, it is somewhat strange to find that a corresponding increase has not made itself apparent in the counties adjoining the Firth of Forth along the north shore. My friend Mr. J. J. Dalgleish of Brankston Grange, near Alloa, in reply to my " circular, says : There has been no increase. No further information has been received beyond the fact of one killed on the estate on 2nd April 1878 [already recorded in my previous article]. I have heard of no others in the neighbour- hood since." Among Wood-pigeons killed in the low Kerse of Falkirk, I received several Stock Doves, and have seen others at various times, but that was principally during the early springs of their first colonisation of the Denny foot-hills and Vale of Menteith. At first they appear to have been feeling their way, resting and feeding often. Now it would almost appear that the migrant birds rush up at once to their breeding zones, resting little, or not at all, among the low- 1 "Royal Phys. Soc. Proc.," vol. vii. p. 254. THE STOCK DOVE IN SCOTLAND 5 lying clay kerse lands, which are not adapted to their requirements. However this may be, inquiries made in the east of Fife and in Forfarshire have elicited but little account. Mr. W. Berry of Tayfield, near Tents Muir, knows of a few there the sand-hills but pairs breeding among ; they are far from abundant. Mr. Berry further informed us that, according to the very careful observations of his gamekeeper, he feels assured that Stock Doves have only "obtruded them- " selves on his notice within the last two or three years. come in March and he saw three on They usually ; Friday, ist April 1892.