The Black Swift. 207 



Mr Maxwell said he was quite ready to accept the correction 

 from Mr Service, because he did not pretend to be a naturalist at 

 all. These voles ran about in the long grass, and he only saw 

 them in the dusk ; but he knew that they were of a short-tailed 

 variety. Referring to Mr Dinwiddle's question, he said he re- 

 membered when a boy going to a shop in Shore Street, Leith, 

 and ordering kegs of a material to paint on the trees at Munches ; 

 and these kegs might as well have been thrown into the water 

 for any good they did ; a shower of rain washed the material off. 

 That treatment was all very well for a few specimens ; but when 

 you had to deal with* a plantation, in which the trees were three 

 feet apart — which was the ideal of many foresters — that meant 

 4840 trees to the acre, and you saw how impossible it was to do 

 anything in the way of dressing. The only thing was to try to 

 reduce the numbers. Some people seemed to like to shoot owls, 

 which would keep these pests in check. In 1891, when voles did 

 great damage to sheep pastures, a Commission was appointed by 

 Government, of which Sir Herbert Maxwell was chairman. 

 They took evidence, and one of the most striking things in their 

 report was, he thought, the -fact of the enormous increase of the 

 owls, and that owls, whose ordinary habit was to lay four eggs, 

 increased their families to twelve or thirteen — he supposed be- 

 cause of the excellent feeding that they had. He hoped the 

 owls would increase in that proportion in his district this summer. 

 Mr Maxwell, Terregles Banks, said towards the end of that 

 vole pest, when it had almost disappeared, great numbers of the 

 short-eared owl were seen in the woods in the neighbourhood of 

 Dumfries, Terregles among others. He was sorry to say a pretty 

 large number of them were shot or trapped.- He mentioned 

 that pheasants are very fond of young voles. 



The Black Swift. By Mr R. Service. 



With the exception of the cuckoo, he observed, we have no 

 other bird that makes so short a stay in these northern regions. 

 The cuckoo stays with us for ten weeks, and the whole time of 

 the visit of the swift is certainly within three months. Almost 

 all of the early swifts died within a few days of their arrival. 

 The air was so chilly that the insects did not rise into the air, 



