BIRDS CLAIMING TO BE ACCOUNTED BRITISH. 265 
likely to have been the specimen in Mr. Bullock's sale 
(15th day, lot 59), which, according to a MS. note in 
Professor Newton’s copy of the catalogue, was killed in the 
Orkneys and bought by Dr. Adams for a guinea; though 
this latter may be one of the three or four incidentally 
mentioned by Selby and Donovan. 
In 1858, Major W. R. King shot a fowl which he is con- 
vinced was a Harlequin—and a drake in good plumage—at 
Buchan in Aberdeenshire (The Sportsman and Naturalist 
in Canada, p. 231). He has been so obliging as to inform 
me that he shot it after several days’ storm from the north- 
east, that it was swimming a short distance only from the 
shore, and that it appeared to be either wounded or much 
exhausted. It was stuffed, but during a temporary absence 
from home was unfortunately so injured by damp and moth 
that it had to be thrown away. 
Mr. Gray says, “The Harlequin Duck has since been in- 
cluded in a catalogue of the Birds of Caithness, prepared 
by Mr. E. S. Sinclair (B. of W. Scotland, p. 394). No 
doubt on the same authority it finds a place in Osborne 
and Shearer's “Birds of Caithness,’ (R. Phys. Soc. Edin., 
IL, p. 340) but as Mr. Sinclair has been found to be wrong 
in the case of the Spotted Sandpiper, there seems to me a 
probability of his having been mistaken here as well. His 
collection has been sold to the Thurso Museum, as Mr. Reid 
informs me. 
In the “ Naturalist” for 1854, p. 242, Mr. Edward relates 
the death of a Harlequin at the hands of a rabbit-catcher 
of Loch Strathbeg, who—abandoned wretch that he was— 
for the sake of a “paltry sum” sent it “away south,” to the 
great indignation of the local magnates; and by doing so 
effectually closed the door against incredulous people like 
myself, who would have made further enquiries. 
Having now done with North Britain, I will begin again 
with Norfolk. Nobody knows what has become of the 
