PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 295 



spicuous reddish masses, which could hardlv be overlooked. (3) 

 Eerherta adunca (Dicks.), Gray, which grows in places similar to 

 the preceding and is much like it at a distance, as it also grows in 

 large reddish masses. It is stated {o}). cit.) to occur in the North 

 TTelsh, Lake, East and West Highland Province^, and in Ireland. 

 It is rather common in Moidart, and is probably to be found in 

 many parts of the West Coast. 



Mr. Anderson Fergusgon exhibited the following Coleoptera from 

 Ailsa Craig: — Silpha thor'acica, Linn., Pyrrhus pilula, Linn., 

 Coccinella septempunctata, Linn., Otiorhynchus hlandus, Gyll., 0. 

 ricgifrons, Gyll. 



Rev. A. S. Wilson, M.A., B.Sc, read a paper entitled ''Self 

 Irrigation in Plants, with Remarks on Animals inhabiting the 

 Axils of Leaves.'"* 



A paper entitled " Past Distribution, Present Migration, and 

 Dispersal of Species in Scotland," by Mr. J. A. Har vie- Brown, 

 P.R.S.E., F.Z.S., M.B.O.XJ., was read. The author referred to 

 the former land-connections of Great Britain as ursjed bv o;eolo2;ists, 

 and the evidence of organic remains, as tending to show and prove 

 the same. Dispersals are going on at the present time under the 

 observation of ornithologists along certain lines of advance, but a 

 much longer series of observations than is at present available will 

 be reqidred before absolute certainty can be reached regarding the 

 past and present dispersal of species. Reference was made to the 

 case of the Capercaillie which has been separately worked out in 

 detail in Mr. Harvie-Brown's The Capercaillie in Scotland 

 (Edin., 1879). This bird, having been restored from a Continental 

 source, cannot be held to be dependent for any extension of its 

 range here, on an annual migration of its kind. While the 

 Capercaillie had been extinct in this country, the Squirrel, w^hich 

 was next referred to, is not believed to have been utterlv exter- 

 minated, although it had nearly shared the Capercaillie's fate. 

 Unlike the Capercaillie, the Squirrel, having been reintroduced in 

 a number of localities, elements of difficulty enter into the study 

 of its dispersal, but these have been dealt with in a previous essay 

 by Mr. Harvie-Brown on The History of the Squirrel in Great 

 Britain (Edin. 1881). The Crested Titmouse was then referred 



*In Knoicledge, Vol. XXL, 1898, this pai^er is printed in another form. 



