54 
The Irish Naturalist, 
Aprilj 
to Ireland, but may have been introduced at an early date 
into such demesnes as Mount Oriel Temple which was 
largely planted about 1776, Castle wellan, and ToUymore 
Park. The mansion at Waringstown seems to have been 
built about 1660-70. But the writer would probably 
have indicated any newly introduced conifers if they were 
the chosen food. " Firr trees," therefore, would seem to 
apply to the Scotch Fir, which was the indigenous fir of 
Co. Down and elsewhere. I regret that I am unable to 
adduce any evidence on the question Mr. Moffat discusses 
so ably, as to whether one species or another affect 
Pinus sylvestris rather than the Larch or Spruce. I can 
only say that on such occasions as I have seen flocks of 
Crossbills in Ireland, they frequented plantations of Pinus, 
but as no specimens were killed, no evidence is available on 
the point mooted. 
It would seem as if the suggestion that the preference 
shown for the seeds of one rather than another conifer, was 
probably correct, and merely indicated that the migrants 
in question arriving from different Continental habitats, 
chose the species of food they were most accustomed to. 
Drumreaske House, Monaghan. 
IRISH SOCIETIES. 
DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 
February 14.- — The Club met at Leinster House. 
W. F. GuNN showed by reflected light some teeth of an unnamed species 
of Eel. The teeth are hollow for the greater part of their length, but 
the apex or tip is solid, and they have a gradual curve inwards. This 
curve serves to facilitate the cngulphing of the prey. Unlike most 
mammalian teeth, those of fishes are renewed frequently during life, 
and a number of those on the slide bore evidence in their blunted points 
of considerable wear. On another slide a thin transverse section of the 
tooth of a Ray was shown, to illustrate the internal structure, in which 
the lacunae and ramifying tubules or canaliculi were well seen, as also 
the hexagonal tessellated appearance formed by the pressing together of 
the separate groups of tubules. 
E. J. Sheehy, a.r.c.sc, exhibited Histiostoma rostro-serratum — a 
tyro-glyphid mite. The species — found on a rotting mushroom — was 
considered to be the cause of decay, but was afterwards shown to attack 
