

THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XI.] MARCH, 1887. [No. 123. 



ON THE FORMER EXISTENCE OF PTARMIGAN 

 IN SOUTH-WEST SCOTLAND. 



By Robert Sekyice. 



I HAVE long been aware, without thinking until lately that the 

 fact had anj' special significance, that Ptarmigan used to be found 

 on the higher summits of the range of hills that divides Kirkcud- 

 brightshire and Dumfriesshire from the neighbouring counties of 

 Ayr, Lanark, Peebles, and Selkirk. It has often been a matter 

 of surprise to me that the former existence of these birds in this 

 south-west corner of Scotland was never alluded to, even inci- 

 dentally, by writers on Scottish Ornithology, with the single 

 exception of the late Sir William Jardine (' Game Birds,' 1834). 

 In no other ornithological work that I am aware of is the occur- 

 rence of Ptarmigan in these two counties mentioned, unless indeed 

 Montagu's remark that " some few are yet to be found south of 

 the Tweed" may be taken as applying here. But Montagu, who 

 doubtless meant the statement to refer to Cumberland, was 

 probably unaware, like a good many other Southrons, that a con- 

 siderable and by no means unimportant portion of Scotland lies 

 "south of the Tweed"! I had intended writing a note on the 

 subject immediately after reading Mr. A. G. More's communication 

 (Zool. 1881, p. 44), in which he endeavoured to show that the 

 whole story of the former existence of Ptarmigan in Westmoreland 

 and Cumberland was unreliable. Like other good resolutions, 

 however, this intention of mine went out of mind until now, when 

 in the course of beginning to take in hand the Ornithology of the 



Z00I>0GIST. MARCH, 1887. II 



