84 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



then in the district when he began used to tell him of the former 

 existence of Ptarmigan on the hill-tops, and regret their dis- 

 appearance. In Harper's 'Rambles in Galloway' (p. 150) it is 

 recorded that the last Ptarmigan shot in Gallowaj'^ was killed on 

 the Dungeon o' Buchan in 1820 by one of the Earl of Galloway's 

 keepers. I have been told that this very bird was preserved by 

 the then factor on the estate, but have been unable to verify the 

 information. In the 'New Statistical Account' (Parish of Minny- 

 gaff, p. 120, 1842) it is stated that Ptarmigan Avere formerly 

 common there, but had at that date disappeared. I think 1820 

 may be taken as the date of their extinction in the parish. 



Kells and Carsphairn. — In these two parishes, the former of 

 which marches with Minnygaff, traditions of the former existence 

 of Ptarmigan abound, almost every elderly native being able to 

 say that he had heard his father talk of the birds. In the ' Old 

 Statistical Account' (Parish of Kells, vol. iv., p. 263, 1792) the 

 Bev. John Gillespie states that Ptarmigan were at that time to be 

 found on the high hills of Kells. The highest peak in the two 

 parishes is Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, and here the birds seem to 

 have been found until about 1818. Mr. Kennedy, of Knock- 

 nailing, in reply to my question, states that he had been informed 

 by old Mr. M'Millan, tenant in Viewfield, that he had shot 

 Ptarmigan on Cairnsmore in the winter of 1817-18, and sent 

 them to Mr. Oswald, of Auchencruive. That winter Mr. M'Millan 

 said was unusually severe, the snow lying far into the spring (a 

 circumstance verified by local records), and that Ptarmigan were 

 never afterwards seen or heard of in that district. Mr. Hastings, 

 the well-known taxidermist in Dumfries, tells me that in 1835 

 (he is tolerably certain of the year) he was on Cairnsmore, and 

 being anxious to ascertain if it was probable that any Ptarmigan 

 were still on the mountain, he made some enquiries of the 

 residents, and leai'nt from William Johnstone, a shepherd, who 

 then lived at Burnfoot, of Carsphairn, that he had known the 

 Ptarmigan all his life on the top of Cairnsmore ; but they 

 gradually dwindled awaj', and he had not seen a single bird 

 during the previous fourteen or fifteen years. The shepherd was 

 then apparently a man of over sixtj'^ years of age, and Mr. 

 Hastings says he was greatly diverted at the time with the deep 

 guttural and sonorous tone with whicli the shepherd uttered the 

 word torrmachaii — a rather remarkable confirmation of Heron of 



