254 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



as I am going to show that it has no title to be included as 

 a British bird, and to prove that, I must quote some extracts 

 from a pamphlet or paper, professing to be "A list of the 

 birds that have been observed to breed in the island of 

 Arran, Scotland, since the year 1835, by Dr. Martin Barry."* 

 The bird has been admitted into our lists, as most natural- 

 ists are aware, on the faith of a skin labelled " Unst, 4th 

 May, 1854," in neat characters by an unknown hand. The 

 mysterious interloper was lot 401, at the sale of the collec- 

 tion of Mr. Troughton of Coventry, and its purchaser was 

 Mr. F. Bond. I turn to the list I have just spoken of, and 

 there I find the Red-throated Pipit, and at the end the 

 following remarkable sentence : " I have received a nest 

 with the old birds from Uist (sic), taken May 4th." I have 

 not the smallest doubt that here we have the identical bird, 

 the date agreeing and the locality also, though the latter 

 appears to be misspelt ; and the obvious explanation is that 

 Mr. Troughton had bought it at the sale of the collection 

 said to have been formed by Dr. Barry. It only remains 

 for me to show that this list, of which I have never seen 

 but one copy, is untrustworthy, and from the tissue of mis- 

 statements contained in it I will select as follows : — 



" I believe that this fe the first time the Aigle Jean-le Blanc, 

 Cinaetus gallicus (Vieillot), has occurred in Scotland. I have 

 several times seen specimens in Ireland ; the last one was nailed 

 up to warn the smaller fry not to steal poultry. 



" The Great Black-headed Gull, Lams ichtJiyaetos, was obtained 

 by myself on the island of Arran, June 5th, 1844, with the eggs. 



" It is strange to find the slender-billed Tern, Anoits tenuirosiris, 

 breeding so far north — my pair of birds were shot on the Island of 

 Arran, and three eggs obtained June loth, 1844." 



* A recent, and I need hardly say, a trustworthy list of the Birds of 

 Arran, with notes, appeared in 1872 from the pen of Mr. Robert Gray. 

 As a matter of course the Red-throated Pipit is not admitted. 



