1 902-1903.] Natural History in Earlier Days. 3 



are accordingly hunted to death, — the jay perhaps with less 

 reason than the rest, for though it can hardly resist the 

 temptation of plundering either eggs or young of any nest 

 of partridge or pheasant that falls in its way, yet it does not 

 subsist entirely upon animal food, but also feeds upon acorns 

 and wild fruits, &c. The jay is a good mimic. I kept one 

 for some weeks, and it imitated to perfection the barking of 

 a neighbour's dog. This jay ate all sorts of food — cheese, 

 potatoes, &c." 



The nest of the jay is usually placed near the top of a low 

 tree. I have seen one in a juniper bush. The materials 

 used in its construction are small sticks, roots, and dry grass, 

 and it generally contains five eggs. In August last I observed 

 a flock of crossbills feeding on the larch trees close to the 

 railway at Ballinluig. I also observed a pair of marsh-tits on 

 August 3 in the vicinity of Ballinluig. 



[Several slides of nests, gamekeeper's " rails," &c., were 

 shown : three of these are here reproduced. On one of the 

 "rails" were suspended the bodies of 38 jays, 3 kestrels, 1 

 long-eared owl, 1 sparrow-hawk, 2 stoats, and 1 weasel,^ — all 

 these had been killed during the month of July 1902.] 



II.— NATURAL HISTORY IN EARLIER DAYS. 

 By Mrs AITCHISON ROBERTSON, M.D. 



(Communicated Nov. 26, 1902.) 



At the meeting of November 26 Mrs Aitchison Eobertson, 

 M.D., read a very interesting paper on " Natural History in 

 Earlier Times," compiled from works written mostly during 

 the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. That 

 remarkable work, the ' Historia Naturalis,' written by Pliny 

 at the beginning of the Christian era, was casually referred 

 to. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Marco Polo 

 wrote his fantastic tales, in which he describes many curious 

 beings, such as the giant race of which Gog and Magog were 



