98 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



all stated to have accepted L. pytyopsittaais as a good 

 species, while the specimens recorded by Yarrell as having 

 been obtained in Britain are also referred to as authentic. 

 The author finally remarks that " it would appear to be 

 unreasonable to accept L. scotica as a good form and yet 

 exclude L. pytyopsittacus" It is desirable to add to Dr 

 Ticehurst's useful communication that the Parrot Crossbill 

 in the Royal Scottish Museum was acquired with the Jardine 

 collection of British birds in 1876. On the base of the 

 stand on which the specimen is mounted there is inscribed 

 " Ross-shire, 1822," also "the type of Bewick's figure." It is, 

 moreover, figured on Plate LI 1 1.* of Selby's " Illustrations." 

 Although this specimen is mentioned in both Selby's and 

 Jardine's works on British birds, the year of its capture, 

 strange to say, has not hitherto been placed on record. 

 The bird is in the " green and red " stage of plumage, but 

 the tips of the longest primaries are broken, so that it is im- 

 possible to give the wing measurement. It must, however, 

 have been considerably more than 100 mm. 



To our already considerable literature regarding the life 

 of the Plaice Dr A. Bowman makes a valuable addition in 

 his account of " The Distribution of Plaice Eggs in the 

 Northern North Sea."^ The continuous collecting of 

 material at definite stations and at regular intervals has 

 revealed with great accuracy the circumscribed areas to which 

 mature Plaice resort for spawning. These lie in moderately 

 deep water within the 50-fathom line on a narrow belt along 

 the East Coast, but the most frequented areas are local 

 patches well within the Moray Firth. It would appear that 

 in their later stages of development the Plaice eggs tend to 

 sink to lower layers of water, and that all the eggs are 

 carried by ocean currents in a general southwards and east- 

 wards direction from their individual spawning area. This 

 drift is counteracted by a migration of mature Plaice for 

 considerable distances against the prevailing currents in the 

 period antecedent to spawning time. 



The terrestrial and marine Mites found during the survey 

 of Clare Island and the surrounding district have for some time 

 ' "Fisheries, Scotland," Sci. Invest., 1914, ii. 



