180 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
siderable distance by the Bats, notwithstanding the large size and weight 
of the nut. Mr. Hart then drew my attention to other trees in the 
gardens, and on the ground beneath them were accumulations of seeds of 
various kinds of fruit-bearing trees, brought thither by the same agency. 
Years ago, when passing through the Straits of Malacca, I observed at 
evening-time hundreds of great fruit-eating Bats passing overhead at a 
high altitude, like a flight of migratory birds, from the Malayan to the 
Sumatran shores, and returning in the early dawn. If these animals have 
the same habit of carrying part of their food with them, what a wide-spread 
means of distributing fruit-bearing plants and trees must exist in those 
regions! In Trinidad these fruit-carrying Bats might easily extend their 
nocturnal flights to the mainland, and possibly doso. It is quite within the 
bounds of probability that fruit-carrying Bats have been caught up in gales 
of wind, and have been borne along, still clinging to their food, until by 
some fortuitous circumstance they reached an island at some distance from 
the point of departure. This may be one of the means by which seeds 
that will not bear long immersion in salt water have been transported to 
islands.—H. W. Fritpen (Trinidad, March 16, 1889). 
BIRDS. 
Crossbill breeding in Co. Waterford.—The Crossbills, four of which 
I first noticed here on November 13th last, have continued to frequent this 
place throughout the winter, so that the loud rattling call-note, which they 
always utter on the wing, has become familiar to me and to others here. 
Their haunts have accordingly been watched, and the discovery was made 
in March of a nest, placed 87 feet from the ground, near the extremity of 
a lateral branch of a Scotch fir, the terminal tree of a group on the hill- 
slope, many other masses of old Scotch firs, with silver and larch, being 
in the vicinity. On the 21st March I watched with a telescope, from 
the high ground above the nest, the female Crossbill which was hatching. 
She frequently changed her position, preened her feathers, and would 
sometimes rise from her crouching attitude, wriggle, and turn in the nest. 
While watching her I heard the rattling cry, more subdued than usual, of 
the male, which perched on the nesting-tree. The female immediately, 
leaving the nest, joined him, and they flew away together for a short time, 
when I discovered them perched on a neighbouring tree. The female, 
which had evidently received some food there from her mate, then returned 
to the nest. On the 22nd, having learned that these birds and their nest 
were wanted for the British Museum, I ascended the tree to inspect the 
contents of the nest. To my surprise the female, which was hatching, did 
not move when I reached the base of the branch she was in, but sat staring 
at me. I then took a stick and pushed her. She resisted the pressure and 
tried to bite the stick. I then pushed her out of the nest, but she kept a 
