On the Night Heron and the American Night Heron. 355 



that this comparatively small vole is very destructive to 

 young trees, indeed periodically threatening the very exist- 

 ence of all young trees in whole forests. Bell quotes Jessie's 

 " GleaninQ;s " to illustrate this in connection with the havoc 

 at one time made on the new plantations in the Forest of Dean. 

 The vast numbers of these animals which swarmed over that 

 district can be imagined, w^hen it is remembered, that not 

 fewer than 200,000 were known to have been killed in one 

 season. The plants were eaten through just below the surface 

 of the ground, in some instances ; in others they were barked 

 just above the surface. These facts indicate that gardens in 

 the suburbs of cities are open to attack from both species of 

 vole. 



I do not know of any instance of the black variety {Arvicola 

 ater, Macgillivray) ever having been met with at any consider- 

 able distance from the w^ater. It is more rare than that now 

 under notice, though it is described as abundant at Aberdeen 

 {Wernerian Memoirs, loc. cit.), and Mr Gray, our Secretary, 

 informs me it was very plentiful near Dunbar some years ago. 

 I have seen it only twice ; in both cases in localities, widely 

 separated, in the neighbourhood of Oban. It may be stated 

 in closing, that not long ago two related forms were captured 

 on the same night in one trap in the vinery of the garden 

 in which the water vole was taken. These were the long- 

 tailed field mouse {Mus sylvaticus) and the common mouse 

 {M. musculus). 



XII. On the Occurrence of the Night Heron (Nycticorax griseus) 

 in Clackmannanshire, and the American Night Heron 

 (Nycticorax gardeni) in Ayrshire. By Egbert Geay, 

 Esq., F.E.S.E. (Specimens exhibited.) 



(Read 18th February 1880.) 



The European night heron {Nycticorax griseus) is so rarely 

 met with in the British Islands that ornithologists have 

 given but a very few records of its occurrence in Scotland. I 

 have therefore thought its appearance last year in Clack- 



