172 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



latter have considered visits to fruit-buds as evidence of evil-doing, 

 and have condemned Tits in general. Dr W. E Collinge {^Country 

 Life, 29th March 191 9) shows from an examination of the food 

 content of thirty-two specimens collected in 19x7-18, that the visits 

 to fruit-buds are all in favour of the fruit grower since the Tits are 

 on the search for insect food. Of the total bulk of food 77 per 

 cent, was found to consist of animal matter, 23 per cent, of vegetable 

 matter. "Of the former 66.5 per cent, is composed of injurious 

 insects, 4 per cent, of beneficial insects, 5.5 per cent, of neutral 

 insects, and i per cent, of spiders. The bulk of the vegetable food 

 consists of wild fruits and weed seeds," only 3 per cent, of fruit pulp, 

 1.5 per cent, of buds and scales, and 1.5 per cent, of wheat. To 

 summarise: "66.5 per cent, of the food is beneficial to the fruit 

 grower and the gardener, 23.5 per cent, is neutral, and only 10 per 

 cent, injurious." 



Economic Value of the Blue Tit. In the article referred to 

 above, Dr Collinge also discusses the nature of the Blue Tit's food. 

 Very strong circumstantial evidence has been cited against it. One 

 correspondent wrote : " We have shot dozens, for they are a dreadful 

 enemy to our fruit and peas." From this correspondent Dr Collinge 

 obtained three specimens which presumably had been observed "in 

 the act of opening peapods." The three stomachs were "packed 

 with the caterpillars of a small moth, numerous aphides, and 

 fragments of dipterous flies, but of vegetable matter there was no 

 trace whatever." Examination of the food content of fifty specimens 

 gave the following volume percentages: 79 per cent, animal matter 

 (78 per cent, injurious insects, i per cent, spiders), 21 per cent, 

 vegetable matter, of which only 6 per cent, was fruit pulp, 2 per 

 cent, blossom buds, 2 per cent, wheat, and 8.5 per cent, weed seeds 

 and wild fruit. So that on the whole 78 per cent, of the Blue Tit's 

 food is useful destruction, 10 per cent, had better have been left 

 alone, and 12 per cent, is neutral. 



A Rare Dragon-fly, Stomatochlora arctica, Zett., in Argyll. 

 Several specimens of the above species were seen or captured by 

 K. J. Morton and J. W. Bowhill on 17th June in Glen Nant, 

 Argyll, a locality which, since it is farther south than Glen Lochay 

 In Perthshire, must be regarded as the southern known limit of 

 this species in Britain. Ent. Mo. Mag., Aug. 19 18, p. 185. 



Insect Pests of Plums and Apples. Two recent leaflets of 

 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries discuss special insect pests 



