Transactions. 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 find 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. 
I have also had several specimens of the Gannet or Solan Goose 
sent me from various parts of the country; one procured a long 
way inland. They are regular sea birds, and splendid fishers. 
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 Ruthwell Cross. By Mr G. F. Brack. 
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 
