OCCASIONAL NOTES. 221 
fruits. Since Mr. Osborne’s observations were published I have taken every 
favourable opportunity of watching the habits of what may now with 
propriety be called our fruit-eating warblers (for there are others besides 
the Blackcap), and I find that towards the close of autumn as insects 
become scarce, or perhaps indeed through preference, those birds betake 
themselves to the glens and gullies, where they greedily devour quantities 
of the berries of the mountain ash and other fruits. Later in the season 
the birds come nearer towns and villages, and are then seen frequenting 
gardens and orchards, picking up what they can find. The specimen which 
I now exhibit was observed by one of the boys at Merchiston School, near 
Edinburgh, on the 5th January, and brought down by a stone from a 
catapult, in the use of which these boys are certainly proficient, however 
much they may be behind in other attainments.” Mr. Gray has presented 
the specimen to the Hunterian Museum. 
Foop or tHE Lone-rarteD Ducx.—At a recent meeting of the Natural 
History Society of Glasgow, Mr. David Robertson, jun., read some notes on 
the food of the Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis, Linn.). After some 
general remarks he stated that the Long-tailed Duck was purely a sea-bird, 
never being seen on land except during the breeding season. It feeds 
exclusively on shells, which it obtains beyond tide-mark, diving to the 
depth of twenty to eighty feet, and remaining under water for a considerable 
time picking up the small shell-fish attached to the sea-weeds and stones at 
the bottom. In the crop of one shot in Skye he had found a large number 
of shells, two of which he was unacquainted with, and having sent these 
to Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys for examination he had identified them as Cyclope 
neritea, a Mediterranean species not known to Britain. One of the specimens 
was a young one, but Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys was able to determine that they 
were both of one species, although hitherto they had been considered as 
distinct. This bird must have picked up these shells either in the Mediter- 
ranean, where, however, it is seldom seen, and flown direct to Skye, and 
there been immediately shot, or what is more likely, as the shells had not 
undergone any trituration in the gizzard, it had found them near the spot . 
where it was killed. Harelda glacialis will thus have the credit of first 
bringing to light the fact of Cyclope neritea being entitled to a place in the 
British fauna. 
THE CAPERCAILLIN 1N ScorLanD.—At a meeting of the Natural History 
Society of Glasgow, held on the 30th April last, a paper was read entitled 
*«* A Chapter in the History of the Capercaillie in Scotland, being Preliminary 
Notes on Damage done to Pine Forests,” by Mr. John A. Harvie Brown. 
The writer treated the subject at considerable length as regards the Caper- 
caillie, and also referred to the damage done to pines from the ravages of a 
beetle, of a nature to create quite a sensation in the Crieff district. He 
