500 PARID.E. 



added, lie had received a specimen, then in his possession. 

 Selby, in 1833, said that he had looked for it in vain, but 

 that he had been told by Sir William Jardine of its breeding 

 not far from Glasgow, and Sir William, who had been 

 equally unsuccessful in meeting with it in his own country, 

 mentioned in 1839 (B. Gr. Br. and Irel. ii. p. 177) that this 

 information was supplied by Lieut. Chauner. Mr. Thomas 

 Macplierson Grant, in some notes on birds in the eastern 

 counties of Scotland with which he favoured this work, says 

 that he had seen the species in considerable numbers and 

 possessed a specimen, shot by himself, most likely, from 

 what Macgillivray tells us, in Strathspey ; while Mr. Bigge 

 forwarded the information that in the summer of 1837 he 

 observed several examples in the pass of Killicrankie. 



From later inquirers, who have profited by the experience 

 of their predecessors, we now know that this bird is a per- 

 manent resident in a few of the oldest forests of Scotland 

 which have not lost their natural growth of firs and oaks, 

 but as such it is restricted to very narrow limits — certain 

 valleys in the counties of Ross, Inverness, Perth, Elgin, Banff 

 and, perhaps, Aberdeen — for Mr. Gray has been unable to trace 

 it in Lanarkshire during the last twenty years. This being 

 the case it runs great risk of extermination, and whoever is 

 anxious that this interesting species should still remain a 

 member of our Fauna, will doubtless readily excuse the 

 naming of the localities it frequents, since every publication 

 of such details is fraught with danger to its existence. 

 Milner in 1847 saw eggs, taken that season in Strathspey 

 (Zool. p. 2017), which were probably the first known to have 

 been found in Britain. Li 1848 Wolley procured other 

 specimens from the same quarter, and in the autumn of the 

 same year Mr. Gould exhibited, at a meeting of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, birds obtained in Scotland, and their appear- 

 ance in the flesh seems to have surprised some naturalists 

 who had perhaps not appreciated the statements of older 

 authors. In one remnant of what was of yore a vast forest 

 of Scotch firs, Wolley, in the spring of 1850, found it pretty 

 common, associating with the Coal-Titmouse, the Long- 



