262 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
and that it was subsequently reintroduced. Inthe Machell MSS., 
preserved in six volumes in the library of the Dean and Chapter 
of Carlisle, being collections for a history of the counties of 
Westmorland and Cumberland, formed by the Rev. Thomas 
Machell, Rector of Kirby Thore, who died in 1698, the following 
note occurs (vol. i. p. 137) on the Pheasant in Westmorland :— 
“They have no Phesants. The species of them being soe tame a 
fowle are long since destroyd, and, since the great forrests have bin 
depopulated of their wood and verdure, so that there is little or none on the 
mountanes for want of copses and covert, to fly too at severall stages, they 
could never yet be restored agane. But it hath bin lately attempted by 
Mr. Lowther to restore that game who 2 or 8 years since brought young 
ones over out of Yorkshire hither; but the country people destroy’d them 
before they increased to any considerable replenneshing number.” 
The editors of Hutchinson’s ‘ History of Cumberland,’ in a 
note to the account of the parish of Muncaster, remark that the 
game of the district consisted of Hares, Partridges, Grouse, and 
some Pheasants introduced by Lord Muncaster. Dr. Heysham, 
writing about the same time (1794—97), remarked, ‘‘ The Pheasant 
_ 1s arare bird in Cumberland, but Sir James Graham and some 
other gentlemen are attempting to introduce them into the 
county.” At the present time it is once more abundant; while 
the attempts to introduce the Capercaillie on the Netherby 
Estate have failed. 
Our readers may perhaps remember that in ‘The Zoologist’ 
for 1881 (pp. 44-47), Mr. A. G. More detailed the result of his 
inquiries into the statements made by Pennant and Latham, and 
repeated by later writers, to the effect that the Ptarmigan was 
formerly to be found upon the lofty hills near Keswick, in 
Cumberland; the conclusion at which he arrived being that the 
so-called Ptarmigan were merely Grouse having an unusual 
amount of white in their plumage. According to Messrs. 
Macpherson and Duckworth, however, there really were Ptarmigan 
at one time on Skiddaw, some having been imported from Scotland 
and turned out there within the memory of a correspondent 
still living at Bassenthwaite. It would be interesting to ascertain, 
while the correspondent referred to is still living, the precise 
date of this attempted introduction, which we are told was a 
failure, the number of birds turned out, and whether any broods 
were ever reared before the stock was extirpated. 
