1 909-1910.] An Accomit of the Excursio7is (19 10). 263 



From one pair in 1904 the Long-eared Owl population had 

 suddenly increased to four pairs in 1908. We never dis- 

 covered more than four pairs, — the four pairs in 1909 may 

 have been the 1908 four pairs redistributed. They were all 

 located within the same line of wood, — a line which began 

 at its southern end in R wood, and culminated about a mile 

 and a half to the northward in C. wood. Outside this line of 

 wood we only once saw a Long-eared Owl. That was on 

 May 10, 1909, in a fir wood about five miles distant. Every 

 other effort to discover Long-eared Owls in West Lothian 

 signally failed, and the question naturally followed. Why 

 should the Long-eared Owl inhabit this line of wood and no 

 other woods in the district ? In what respect did this line 

 of wood differ from the other woods that it should be so 

 favoured ? There was only one which we, being neither 

 authorities nor owls, could perceive of as likely to affect the 

 matter. Since 1902 not one of the woods which composed 

 the " line " had held a Tawny Owl's nest. Most of the 

 coniferous or partly coniferous woods in the district were 

 used by Tawny Owls for nesting purposes, and the absence of 

 breeding Tawny Owls in the " line " was consequently all the 

 more striking. We do not wish to suggest that the Long-ear 

 and the Tawny cannot live amicably together ; we only wish to 

 point out that it was in the woods left vacant by the Tawny 

 that the Long-eared Owls took up their abode. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXCURSIONS {1910), 



By The Peesident. 



The first field excursion this season was to Bangour on 

 April 23, with the object of seeing the series of buildings 

 on the segregate system there under the charge of the Edin- 

 burgh Lunacy Board. Mr G. M. Brotherston was the leader, 

 and although the weather was of a threatening aspect, 26 

 members were present. They were received by the Super- 



