284 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



do not hesitate to send you the full particulars. On the 9th 

 of last monthj in writing on certain matters to an ornitho- 

 logical friend in Arbroath, Mr. A. Nicol Simpson, who is 

 ever observant of the birds reaching our coasts and has 

 already formed a considerable collection, I casually asked 

 him if any rarities had lately been seen in his neighbourhood. 

 On the 13th I received a note in reply to say that he had 

 heard, among other things, that a Wheatear had been shot 

 by Mr. Alexander Marshall, birdstuffer in that town. Thinking 

 it curious that a Wheatear should appear on the coast in mid- 

 winter, and believing it might turn out to be only a Stone- 

 chatj a bird which not unfrequently remains with us all 

 winter, I wrote to Mr. Simpson to ask if he could kindly 

 get the bird for my inspection. On questioning Mr. Mar- 

 shall on the subject^ Mr. Simpson found that, considering 

 the bird to be only a Common Wheatear, though a very 

 highly coloured specimen, Mr. Marshall had not preserved 

 it, owing to part of the head having been shot away, and 

 had left it lying ever since outside his shop, where, most 

 fortunately, it still remained, though some two or three 

 weeks had elapsed. My friend, being in a great hurry at 

 the time, did not examine it^ and thinking it of no use for 

 preservation in the state it was, enclosed it to me in a 

 common envelope, without any protection, so that, on its 

 arrival, owing to the effects of having been well stamped 

 in the various post-offices through which it had passed, 

 the chances of its preservation, as may be imagined, had not 

 increased. On hastily tearing open the very unpresentable 

 envelope, guess the astonishment of the recipient to find, 

 instead of the anticipated Stonechat, an example of Sax- 

 icola deserti ! Fearing the specimen might be lost to 

 science, I sent it off at once to Mr. Harvie-Brown, of Duni- 

 pace (but a little more carefully packed), to confirm the dis- 

 covery for me, w^ith the request that he would kindly forward 

 it on immediately to Mr. Robert Small, birdstuffer, Edin- 

 biirgh, to see if he could possibly do anything with it. Under 

 Mr. SmalFs able manipulation, I am happy to say it was 

 most successfully carbolized, it being impossible to skin it ; 



