fruits. Since Mr. Osborne's observations were published I have taken every favourable opportunity of watching the habits of what may now with propriety be called our fruit-eating warblers (for there are others besides the Blackcap), and I find that towards the close of autumn as insects become scarce, or perhaps indeed through preference, those birds betake themselves to the glens and gullies, where they greedily devour quantities of the berries of the mountain ash and other fruits. Later in the season the birds come nearer towns and villages, and are then seen frequenting gardens and orchards, picking up what they can find. The specimen which I now exhibit was observed by one of the boys at Merchiston School, near Edinburgh, on the 5th January, and brought down by a stone from a catapult, in the use of which these boys are certainly proficient, however much they may be behind in other attainments." Mr. Gray has presented the specimen to the Hunterian Museum.
Food of the Long-tailed Duck.—At a recent meeting of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, Mr. David Robertson, jun., read some notes on the food of the Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis, Linn.). After some general remarks he stated that the Long-tailed Duck was purely a sea-bird, never being seen on land except during the breeding season. It feeds exclusively on shells, which it obtains beyond tide-mark, diving to the depth of twenty to eighty feet, and remaining uuder water for a considerable time picking up the small shell-fish attached to the sea-weeds and stones at the bottom. In the crop of one shot in Skye he had found a large number of shells, two of which he was unacquainted with, and having sent these to Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys for examination he had identified them as Cyclope neritea, a Mediterranean species not known to Britain. One of the specimens was a young one, but Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys was able to determine that they were both of one species, although hitherto they had been considered as distinct. This bird must have picked up these shells either in the Mediterranean, where, however, it is seldom seen, and flown direct to Skye, and there been immediately shot, or what is more likely, as the shells had not undergone any trituration in the gizzard, it had found them near the spot where it was killed. Harelda glacialis will thus have the credit of first bringing to light the fact of Cyclope neritea being entitled to a place in the British fauna.
The Capercaillie in Scotland.—At a meeting of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, held on the 30th April last, a paper was read entitled "A Chapter in the History of the Capercaillie in Scotland, being Preliminary Notes on Damage done to Pine Forests," by Mr. John A. Harvie Brown. The writer treated the subject at considerable length as regards the Capercaillie, and also referred to the damage done to pines from the ravages of a beetle, of a nature to create quite a sensation in the Crieff district. He
