PTARMIGAN IN S-W. SCOTLAND. 87 



long time, was shot last week on the estate of Croompark, which 

 stretches almost to the side of the Nitli, and is within a few 

 minutes walk of this town. This bird, which we have seen, is 

 obviously a cock, with very bright plumage, considering its colour, 

 and has been finely stuffed by Mr. Hellon, at Messrs. J. Kerr 

 & Coy's." 



It will be seen there is a difference in the number of brace 

 said to have been taken, but the main interest of this paragraph 

 centres in the passage concerning the young Ptarmigan from 

 Cumberland. That the writer, who was beyond doubt M'Diavmid 

 himself, comprehended the importance attached to the capture of 

 Ptarmigan is well shown in the following words occurring in an 

 article contained in the ' Courier' for November 29tb, 1828 : — 



" To us few things are more agreeable than a day spent among 

 the mountains of Scotland ; and hence our ■penchant for exploring 

 every loch and cleuch, where a trout leaps, an eagle soars, a ptar- 

 migan lingers, the last of its race, or a bittern, derned in some 

 solitary marsh, beats his hollow drum as the night closes in." 



In the ' Courier' for May 14th, 1833, in describing a curious 

 variety of the Black Grouse, the specimen mentioned in a para- 

 graph above quoted is again referred to in the following terms : — 



" Some years ago Mr. Murray, of Broughton, shot a bird 

 which the best judges considered a cross between the Bed Grouse 

 and Ptarmigan." 



We may now dismiss the specimen in question with the 

 remark that, after all, it seems to have borne a suspicious 

 resemblance to a Ptarmigan in the lavender-tinted autumn 

 plumage. I have failed to discover any trace of the person 

 who captured the birds "above Sanquhar"; but the gamekeeper 

 at Wanlockhead, who has been fifty years a keeper in the district, 

 says he had heard that some Ptarmigan in the Dumfries Museum 

 were killed near Wanlockhead. The Museum was established in 

 1835, but the catalogue of the contents, printed in 1843, does not 

 mention any Ptarmigan. There were two old specimens in the 

 Museum, however, that had been there for over forty years. It 

 is a painful reflection to me to know that these were thrown to the 

 rubbish-heap by myself three or four years ago, being then so 

 much moth-eaten and moulded, owing to a long course of neglect, 

 that they were barely recognisable as Ptarmigan. I am convinced, 

 from enquiries made into their history, that they were really two 



