332 CORVIDJ;. 



As regards Scotland, Macgillivray says that a specimen 

 then in the Museum of the University of Edinburgh was 

 said to have been shot in that kingdom, and that there 

 was another in the collection of Mr. Arbuthnot at Peter- 

 head, which last is alleged by the author of the Statistical 

 Account of that parish to have been killed there.* Neither 

 of these statements can be fully accepted, and the only occur- 

 rence of the species in Scotland which is free from doubt 

 would seem to be that of an example sent to Mr. M'Leay 

 of Inverness, having been shot, according to Mr. Gray, at 

 Invergarry in that county in October, 1868. The Nut- 

 cracker cannot be announced with any certainty as having 

 been observed in Ireland. Templeton's notes, quoted by 

 Thompson, mention one shot in Tipperary, but the 

 naturalist last named put little faith in the statement, 

 and Mr. Watters does not even allude to it. 



There is much likeness between the history of this 

 species and that of the Waxwing as before given (vol. i. 

 page 523). The Nutcracker had been for centuries a well- 

 known bird in Western Europe, appearing at irregular 

 intervals, mostly in autumn or winter, sometimes in large 

 bands or even flocks, as in 1754, 1763, 1793, 1805, 1814, 



or not. The species has been many times noticed as seen in various parts of 

 England, and, though observers may in some cases have been mistaken, the 

 records deserve mention. The first of them relates to a bird watched for some 

 time throiigh a telescope near Bridgewater in the autumn of 1805, by Mr. Anstice, 

 whom Montagu regarded as an accurate observer. The second bird was observed 

 in Netherwitton Wood, in the autumn of 1819, by Admiral Mitford, the 

 coadjutor of Selby, who records the incident. The third was seen on the banks 

 of Hooe Lake in the parish of Plymstock by the late Mr. Thomas Bulteel, as 

 Mr. Rodd informed the Author. Newman (Letters of Rusticus, p. 159) notices 

 two seen in Surrey — one closely watched by Mr. R. Haines in Peperharow Park, 

 the other by Mr. W. Kidd near Guildford. Mr. Rowe (B. Devon, p. 28) is 

 pretty sure he saw one near Saltram in October, 1862, and Mr. T. C. Melville 

 says (Zool. s. s. p. 3689) he saw one near North Petherton in Somerset, August 

 4th, 1873 ; while the late Lord Tweeddale told the Editor of one supposed to 

 have been seen at Tester in East Lothian in December, 1876. 



* Mr. R. Gray, who in 1869 examined this collection in the Peterhead 

 Museum, could find no trace of the specimen. The statement, like many others 

 touching Zoology in the same compilation, very possibly originated in a mistake. 

 Macgillivray is frequently said to have asserted that the specimen he described 

 was also killed in Scotland, whereas he did nothing of the kind. 



