264 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Our ornithological readers will be interested in an account of the Fulmar 

 which appears in the October number of the Zoologist (pp. 381-388), from the pen 

 of Dr J. A. Harvie-Brown. This paper is an extension of that which recently 

 appeared in our pages, and is devoted mainly to the past and present status of 

 the species beyond the Scottish area. The present instalment is entirely devoted 

 to " Introductory Remarks," but we notice that the statements refer entirely to 

 Scottish localities. 



In British Birds for October (pp. 154-155) appears a note by C. E. Stracey 

 Clitherow on the " Probable Nesting of the Pied Flycatcher in Moray." A nest 

 was found in a hole of an old birch tree on the bank of the Moriston River, 

 Inverness, on 17th August. It is described as a typical Tied Flycatcher's, made 

 of moss and strips of honeysuckle bark, was situated about three and a half feet 

 from the ground, and contained a single egg which had evidently been laid for 

 some considerable time. The nest was submitted to Mr F. C. R. Jourdain, whose 

 opinion concurs with that of the author. 



In the Field for 2 1st September (p. 629) Peter McRae records the shooting 

 of a Turtle Dove at Dundonnell, Ross-shire. In the succeeding number of the 

 same journal (p. 669) Major Haines records the occurrence of a specimen about 

 four years ago, at Achnahaird, in the same county. Again, in the issue of 5th 

 October, A. H. Mackenzie-Cotton (p. 720) records the shooting of an example in 

 a turnip-field at Gairloch in 1880. 



We note in the Zoologist for October (pp. 361-380) an interesting paper, 

 entitled "On Scottish Marine Fishes, 1898-1912," by Prof. Mcintosh, St Andrews. 

 This paper was communicated to the meeting of the British Association in Dundee, 

 on the 6th September. After giving careful summaries of the yearly captures by 

 trawlers and liners for the period concerned, some general remarks are made 

 bearing on the question whether the large amount of fishing prosecuted off our 

 coasts is likely to result in a serious depletion of the food-supply. The author 

 considers that the gloomy ideas which have become prevalent in certain quarters 

 are hardly justified, and taking the Plaice as an example, he shows that at present 

 there seems to be no gre^t danger of its serious diminution. He questions, too, 

 the benefit of maintaining marine fish-hatcheries for the open sea. 



At a meeting of the South London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society, held on 22nd August (vide Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for October, 

 p. 245), Mr Newman exhibited a long series of Pachnobia hyperborea from 

 Rannoch showing much variation, a short uniform scries of the same moth from 

 Shetland, and a few Cry modes exu'.is also from Shetland [Lepidoptera]. 



In the Entomologist 's Monthly Magazine for October (p. 239) N. Charles 

 Rothschild publishes two notes of interest to students of Lepidoptera. The first, 

 on the food-plant of Erebta blandina, records the deposition of eggs of this species 

 on the grass Molinia ccerulea, ihis being the first notice of the food-plant in a wild 

 state. The plant, with ova attached, was sent to the author by L. G. Ess on from 

 a locality in Scotland where the insect was common. In the second note, which 

 deals with the food-plant of Erebia epiphron^ it is definitely shown that the larvae 

 feed upon the grass JVardus stricta, plants having been carefully marked by H. A. 

 Beadle, of Keswick, and when in flower forwarded to Mr Rothschild. 



