DAMAGE TO FORESTS. 133 



crop, which I examined in April 1874, 1 found the contents to 

 be wholly the young shoots, leaves, and huds of larch. I counted 

 the extraordinary number of 918 buds alone in this ' crop,' 

 besides the bits of shoots and leaves, which formed by far the 

 bulkiest part of the whole. There were a few bits (three) 

 of silvery lichen amongst the contents, but nothing else.^ 

 These are given a,sfair samples of many crops I have examined, 

 received chiefly from Perthshire, Mr. Brown having sent me 

 about a score from Perth in 1874. In none of them did I ever 

 meet with a pine beetle, or any other insect that would lead 

 me to suppose that the bird preys upon insects, or had a pre- 

 ference for shoots which were infected by them. In fact, I 

 should maintain that the bird prefers clean, healthy, fresh food, 

 and has no taste for damaged or decaying vegetation of any 

 kind. I have never examined the crop of a young bird taken 

 out of the nest ; but I have analysed the crops of several 

 birds of the same year in July and August, and failed in every 

 instance, to find any insects, so that, although I am aware 

 that it is said in books that they are ' fond of insects, especially 

 when young,' I am unable to corroborate the assertion. The 

 nature and habits of the bird do not in any way lead me even 

 to suppose it feeds on insects ; but in other parts of the world 

 — in Norway for instance — it may feed on different matter to 

 what it does in Scotland. 



" Since I made my investigations anent the injury done 

 by the Capercaillie, etc., to forest trees, I have also investi- 

 gated the injury done by insects. The injury done by the 

 pine beetle to the Scots fir is in no ways analogous. The 

 beetle does its injury internally, by eating the pith of the 

 shoots and heart of the buds ; the Capercaillie ' lops ' the 

 shoots, buds, and leaves clean off, and the one cannot by any 

 possibility be mistaken for the other ; besides, the injury is 



^ The pieces of lichen no doubt were picked up along with the other con- 

 tents of the crop, and do not form a part of the regiilar food of the bird. — 

 [J. A. H. B.] 



