THE PTARMIGAN IN CUMBERLAND AND WALES. 45 
It will not be uninteresting to follow, from the first, the 
variations and additions which have been made by subsequent 
authors. 
Pennant (1776), in the fourth edition of his ‘ British Zoology,’ 
says of the Ptarmigan, ‘“ A few still inhabit the lofty hills near 
Keswick, in Cumberland.” 
Latham (1783) copies these words verbatim, adding, ‘as well 
as in Wales”; and here it is well to observe that Pennant, 
himself'a Welshman, and taking particular interest in the fauna 
of the principality, makes no mention of Wales as a locality for 
the Ptarmigan, either in his ‘ British Zoology’ or in his ‘ Tour 
in Wales.’ 
Dr. Heysham (1794), in his account of Cumberland animals, 
given in Hutchinson’s ‘History of Cumberland,’ refers to both 
Pennant and Latham, and says, ‘‘ The Ptarmigan is become a 
very scarce bird in Cumberland; and I believe is nowhere to 
be found in this county, except on the lofty mountains about 
Keswick.” A statement which may have been derived from the 
same source as Pennant’s, or may be an adaptation, in slightly 
varied language, from the ‘ British Zoology’; and, if Dr. Heysham 
spoke from independent observation, or enquiry, it is to be 
regretted that he has furnished so little in addition to what was 
already known. Whatever we may think of his testimony, so far 
as I know, he only, after Pennant, can be quoted as a possibly 
iudependent authority. 
Thenceforward most authors have been content to repeat the 
old localities of Keswick and Wales,+ or Cumberland and Wales, t 
varied, in the language of Montagu (1802), as “‘ Some few are yet 
found to the south of the Tweed.”* 
But, in 1825, Selby departs still further from the original 
statement, when he writes :—‘‘ According to Pennant and earlier 
* Graves, in his ‘British Ornithology,’ the first edition of which was. 
published in 1811, remarks that this bird “is rarely to be met with but on 
the high mountainous parts of this country, on the highlands of Scotland, 
and on the hills of Snowdon, in Wales; they abound on all the heathy 
mountains in the north of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and like the 
Grouse feed on most kinds of mountain berries.” —Eb. 
+ Walcott, ‘Synopsis of British Birds’ (1789); Donovan, ‘ Natural 
History of British Birds’ (1794). 
{ Lewin, ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. v. (1797); Bewick, ‘ History of 
British Birds’ (1797). 
