2o6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



district is decidedly poor in birds. There are no moles, and I 

 have only once seen a hedgehog during my four years' stay here. 

 The following quotation from YarrelVs British Birds, 4th ed., 

 p. 148, may be of interest: — "An examination of 210 pellets 

 composed of the indigestible portions of food thrown up by the 

 * Brown owl ' showed remains of 6 rats, 42 mice, 296 voles, 33 

 shrews, 48 moles, 18 small birds, 48 beetles, besides a countless 

 number of cockchafers." 



Damage to the various species was done in the following 

 order : — 



Most Injured. — Transplanted Scots and Austrian pine, 

 and seedling Cuptessus macrocarpa, Pinus insignis, 

 Scots pine, and larch. All of these seedlings were 

 devoured greedily. 

 Less Injured than above. — 2- and 3-year seedling spruce 

 transplants, 2-year seedling larch transplants, and 

 seedling spruce. 

 Injured. — i-year seedling larch transplants. 

 Scarcely Injured. — 2-year silver fir transplants, 3-feet 



Cotoneaster Simo?isii, and beech. 

 Uninjured. — Oak, ash, elm, and cherry plum. 

 Recuperative poiiier of the various plants. — In cases where the 

 chafer grubs had not stripped the bark to less than 4 inches or 

 so from the surface, larch showed the greatest power of recover- 

 ing from the mutilation of its roots, more especially where it had 

 been attacked after making a considerable amount of stem 

 growth. Next, and almost equal to the larch in this respect, 

 comes Lawson's cypress. When relaying these in September, 

 I threw the worst damaged plants into the rubbish heap ; the 

 others I cut down almost to the ground, and every one so 

 treated has recovered. Scots and Austrian pines and Norway 

 spruce have practically no recuperative power if damaged even 

 to a fairly moderate degree, and in any case it is not worth 

 while throwing good money after bad in an attempt to restore 

 these species to usefulness. 



In the summer of 1903 I came to the conclusion that the 

 swarm-year of that generation's parents was in the summer of 

 1900, before I came here. My reason for thinking so was that 

 the grubs were more numerous in the pasture-field outside the 

 nursery than in the nursery itself. The gardener also told me 

 that in the garden, distant about 50 yards east, he had seldom 



