26 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



paper by C. B. Moffat,^ one of whose objects is to induce 

 observations likely to throw light on the question of the 

 particular conifer preferred by the birds now settled in 

 Ireland. The two invasions of 1888 and 1909 are contrasted, 

 inasmuch as the Crossbills of the former year and their 

 descendants appeared to feed principally on the seeds of the 

 larch, while those of 1909 and subsequent years, probably 

 derived from a second large incursion, seemed to favour the 

 Scots pine. The author suggests that this difference in taste 

 may indicate that the Crossbills arriving in Ireland in 1909 

 may have come from a different part of Europe from that 

 which sent out the migration of 1888. He remarks upon 

 Seebohm's statement to the effect that the Parrot Crossbill 

 feeds on Scots pine while the Common Crossbill restricts 

 itself to the spruce and larch, and criticises Selous' theory 

 (founded on this statement) that the former is a stronger and 

 newer bird evolved from the latter " by the necessities of its 

 heavier task when reduced to feeding on Scotch fir-cones." 

 In Mr Moffat's opinion the exact opposite is more likely to 

 have been the case, since the cones of the spruce and larch 

 present no difficulty to the much smaller Siskin, Lesser 

 Redpole, and Goldfinch, and that therefore "the earliest 

 Crossbill would never have needed to be a Crossbill at all 

 unless jt had wanted to force open cones with a strong close 

 structure like those of the Scotch fir." Lastly, the author 

 states that in the south-eastern part (and probably throughout 

 the rest) of Ireland the Crossbill seems never to touch the 

 cones of the spruce, a fact which requires some explanation. 



A paper by J. C. Adam, in the recently issued part of the 

 Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists' and 

 Microscopical Society^ entitled " A Pair of Long-eared 

 Owls," should appeal to those of our readers — and we hope 

 they are many — who are interested in " that elusive entity, 

 the bird behind the feathers." For two consecutive years, 

 1910 and 1911, the owls, which inhabited a wood of Scots 

 pine and spruce in West Lothian, were closely watched by 

 the author and S. E. Brock, and the almost daily, or rather 



' Irish Naturalist^ January 1916, pp. 1-6. 

 -' \''ol. vii., parts ii., iii., pp. 63-91, 1915. 



