88 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of the birds cnptuvecl near Sanquhar in 1822, and there is every 

 reason to believe they were presented to the Museum by Mr. 

 M'Diarmid himself. He was one of the projectors of the Museum, 

 and for many years afterwards took a keen interest in promoting 

 its welfare. The late Duke of Buccleuch introduced Ptarmigan 

 near Sanquhar about twenty-five years since, but they immediately 

 disappeared. This is, I believe, the only attempt that has been 

 made to re-stock any part of the hills in Galloway and Dumfries 

 with these interesting birds. 



Hartfell and District. — The same remark I made about the 

 absence of oral traditions of Ptarmigan in the district surrounding 

 the Lowthers has also to be made in the case of the locality under 

 notice. Mr. Roy, Secretary of the Moffat Naturalists' Field Club, 

 has most obligingly made enquiries for me in that district, but 

 with only a negative result. There are two printed records of 

 Ptarmigan in Moffatdale. One of these is contained in the 'New 

 Statistical Account' (Moffat Parish, 1835, p. 108) :—" Ptarmigan 

 are very rarely seen." The other record is that of Sir W. Jardine 

 (' Game Birds,' 1831, p. 172), the same passage being repeated 

 verbatim in his ' British Birds ' (vol. iii., p. 95) : — "According to 

 Pennant, and some contemporary writers, these birds were found 

 on the hills of Westmoreland and Cumberland ; and, I believe, 

 recollections even exist of a few having been seen upon the high 

 ranges which ajipear on the opposite border of Scotland. These 

 have been for some time extirpated, and unless a few solitary 

 pairs remain on Skiddaw, or some of its precipitous neighbours, 

 the range of the Grampians will be its most southern British 

 station." No precise locality is here named, but " the high 

 ranges" on the border of Scotland "opposite" to Cumberland can 

 only be the Moffat Hills. 



I think I have in the preceding pages succeeded in showing 

 that Ptarmigan were natives of the South-west of Scotland until 

 near the end of the first quarter of the present centur}'. During 

 my enquiries I have never heard the slightest hint that the 

 Ptarmigan that used to live on our hills might have been white 

 or particoloured specimens of the common Red Grouse. The 

 suggestion in question is of such a nature that it is not easily 

 disproved, but I look upon it as a rather gratuitous complication 

 introduced into an otherwise very interesting piece of historical 

 ornithology. But when we find that on nearly all the outlying 



