m2 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
is not satisfactory. In this last-named work, however, 
there is “in the Appendix, pp: (2038 =209)))a statement 
which, from its direct bearing on the question, would seem 
to have escaped the attention of Professor Newton and 
Dr J. A. Harvie-Brown since they make no reference to it. 
It must be stated here that the collection of antiquities, 
birds, etc, formed by Marmaduke Tunstall (6 1743, d. 
roth October 1790) of Wycliffe Hall, Yorkshire, passed at his 
death to his half-brother William Constable. Constable only 
lived six months before being succeeded by his nephew 
Edward Sheldon who, in 1791, sold the collection for less 
than £700, to Tunstall’s friend Mr George Allan (4 7th June 
1736, @. 18th May 1800) of Grange, near Darlington, who 
added the collection to his Museum. After his death the 
Museum was purchased by his son from his father’s executors, 
and it remained in his possession at Grange till June 1822 
when it was advertised for sale at auction, but was bought 
by private contract, previous to the day of sale, for £400 
by Mr G. T. Fox on behalf of the Literary and Philosophical 
Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr Fox, with the sanction 
of the Committee of the Society, thereafter prepared a 
descriptive Catalogue of the contents, which takes the form 
of “An enumeration of the Articles contained in the Allan 
Museum which will be found labelled with corresponding 
numbers.” Mr Fox, writing of article, or exhibit, “164, 
The Cock of the Wood, male bird,” states :— 
“T am unable to make out if the present specimen be really 
of British capture. . . . I have heard that it was formerly considered 
by visitors to the Wycliffe Museum, as the vara avis of the collection, 
and it may be therefore inferred that this character would only 
have been given to it from such circumstance, as foreign specimens 
are sufficiently common, and easy of attainment.” ? 
The above quotation is certainly sufficiently unconvincing 
to please anybody; but Mr Fox, in a short introduction 
to the Appendix to his book, informs us that :— 
‘Almost when the press had arrived at printing this part of 
the Catalogue, a discovery was made of the two MS. volumes of 
ING. i HOXWODACzZ., P73: 
