The Scottish Natitralist. 
47 
Dove {Titrtur orientalis), in first plumage. Although a native of Asia, this 
species has been detected as a straggler in Europe, including Scandinavia. 
The second species is also an oriental stranger, namely, the Indian Roller 
{Coracias indicus). This bird was shot near Louth, in Lincolnshire, on the 
8th of October, 1883, and was recorded in the Migration Report for 1883^ 
p. 47, as a Common Roller. It remained unexamined until Mr. Cordeaux, 
who communicates the facts to "The Ibis" for January, 1891, happened to 
see it and rescued it from oblivion. The Indian Roller is a native of India 
and Persia, but has occurred as an occasional visitor in Eastern Europe. 
A " Forth Branch " of the Selbourne Society has been ormed in Edinburgh 
and is the only one existing at present in Scotland. One of the primary 
objects of the Society is to " preserve from unnecessary destruction such wild 
birds, animals, and plants as are harmless, beautiful and rare." We would 
fain call the attention of the Scottish Branch of this very worthy Society to 
the case of the Great Skua mentioned by Mr. Harold Raeburn at page 18 
of this number of the "Scottish Naturalist." We, too, know from personal 
experience gained in its only British haunts in Shetland, that unless those 
interested in such work will take up the case of this most interesting species, 
it must soon be expunged from the list of our indigenous birds. The 
Honorary Secretary of the Forth Branch is Miss Isabel B. Waterston, 45 
Inverleith Row, Edinburgh. 
Dr. F. Buchanan White contributes to the " Journal of the Linnean Society" 
(Vol. XXVII., pp. 333-457), an important monograph entitled "A Revision 
of the British Willows." The chief results of his long and close study of this 
group of plants — only too well-known to British botanists as one of the most 
difficult in our native flora — have appeared in a paper by Dr. White in our 
last issue as regards the nomenclature of the forms that he recognises as species 
and as hybrids respectively. But in the " Revision" we have the group treated 
of in a manner that explains the author's reasons for the conclusions at which 
he has arrived, and enables us to appreciate in some degree the labour in- 
volved and the completeness of the material employed in the investigation. 
Dr. White has brought to the study of British Willows a very thorough ac- 
quaintance with the labours of salicologists, both British and foreign, and has 
rendered these available to British botanists in a way previously unknown. 
He has probably unequalled acquaintance with our native Willows in the wild 
state, and has thus been enabled to trace out the genealogy of many of the- 
doubtful forms. Thus equipped he has been able to throw light on not a few 
of the difficulties that beset the path of salicologists, and while adding con- 
siderably to the list of known hybrids, he has done the useful work of sweep- 
ing aside names representing forms too inconstant to deserve even varietal 
rank. The number of true species admitted in the " Revision " as British is 
17, while the known hybrids reach 41. Of these, all the species have been met 
with in Perth and Forfar, and over two-thirds have been found in Midlothian,, 
including even "alpine " forms among the latter. The " Revision " is accom- 
panied with three diagrams, of which one illustrates graphically the views of 
leading British botanists with regard to the British Willows at various periods^ 
