TriiHdactions. 123 



specimen of a Duck sent me. It was of the Pochard class, but 

 unlike any other I ever had. It was of a uniform dull brown, 

 approaching to black on the back and wings —the wings without 

 any beauty spot ; the breast and belly of a dull or dirty white ; 

 crown of the head dark brown, like the back ; cheeks whitish ; 

 dark line from the nape down the whole length of the neck ; the 

 legs short ; feet large ; webs black ; bill moderate size, and of 

 a dark colour. I thought when I received it that it was the 

 female Scaup Duck, but upon examination I found that it was 

 not that at all. I can tind no description of it in any work on 

 Natural History that I have or have had access to, so I conclude 

 that it is a stranger, and is not found in the list of British birds. 



1 have also had several specimens of the Gannet or Solan Goose 

 sent me from vai-ious parts of the country; one procured a long 

 way inland. They are regular sea birds, and splendid lishers. 

 The nearest breeding place for them is Ailsa Craig, in the Firth 

 of Clyde ; and they also breed in great numbers on the Bass 

 Rock, in the Firth of Forth. I am of opinion that the specimens 

 which I received are old birds that have lived their natural time, 

 and were dying of old age, as the most of them were pucked-up 

 in a sickly or dying condition. There is a great increase in the 

 number of small birds generally in our neighbourhood, which had 

 been sadly thinned by the severe winter we had some five years 

 ago. 



III. The Rutkwell Cross. By Mr G. F. Black. 



The Cross which forms the subject of this paper stands within 

 the manse garden at Ruthwell, in Annandale, about ten miles 

 from Dumfries. As it stands at present the Cross is reconstructed, 

 it having been found in fragments and pieced together by the 

 late Rev. Dr Henry Duncan, minister of the parish. The extreme 

 length of the Cross is about 17^ feet, of which rather more than 



2 feet is embedded in the earth. The shaft is 2 feet in breadth 

 at the base, and 15 inches in thickness. The material is a 

 reddish, or rather a reddish-grey sandstone, probably quarried 

 from the neighbouring hills. The Cross stood in the old church 

 of Ruthwell till 1642, when it was ordered to be destroyed, as a 

 monument of Pagan idolatry, by an order of the General 

 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which met at 

 St. Andrews on the 27th July, 1642. The column was accord- 

 ingly thrown down and broken in several pieces, and left lying 



