THE PTARMIGAN IN LAKELAND. 97 



man reports having seen, some days ago, a trip of about forty 

 Golden Plovers, and a Peregrine driving a Mallard to covert. 



26th. My son shot, close to Lilford, a male Goldeneye, just 

 beginning to show the white feathers of cheek-patches. This 

 autumn has been remarkable for the scarcity of Snipes in our 

 neighbourhood, for the abundance of Partridges and wild-bred 

 Pheasants ; also of travelling Wood-Pigeons, as above recorded. 

 Our summer migrants were, with very few exceptions, perhaps, 

 rather in excess of their average numbers, and more Hawfinches 

 nested in our district than on any previous occasion within "the 

 memory of the oldest inhabitant." 



I append my accustomed list of earliest records of arrival of 

 summer migrants, as reported to or observed by me ; where no 

 locality is specified, understand Lilford : — March 15th, Wheatear; 

 21st, Whimbrel, Willow Wren (Northampton) ; 24th, Chiffchaff ; 

 31st, Swallow (Cotter stock). April 1st, Nightingale (North- 

 ampton) ; 6th, Wryneck ; 8th, Blackcap ; 10th, Ray's Wagtail, 

 Cuckoo, Tree Pipit ; 14th, Eedstart ; 17th, Bank-Martin, Sedge 

 Warbler ; 19th, Whitethroat ; 20th, Lesser Whitethroat ; 22nd, 

 Common Sandpiper ; 24th, Grey-backed Wagtail (Kingsthorpe) ; 

 25th, Garden-Warbler, Corn-Crake (Cotterstock) ; 29th, Reed- 

 Warbler. May 1st, Red-backed Shrike; 5th, Swift (North- 

 ampton) ; 7th, Spotted Flycatcher ; 8th, Turtle Dove ; 21st, 

 Nightjar. June 2nd, Hobby. 



THE PTARMIGAN IN LAKELAND. 

 By Rev. H. A. Macpherson, M.A. 



As the question of the former existence of the Ptarmigan, 

 Lagopus mutus, in Lakeland has on more than one occasion been 

 discussed in ' The Zoologist/ I venture to ask for space to 

 explain the present position of the case. When last referred to 

 (Zool. 1887, p. 153), I pronounced against the supposed existence 

 of this bird on our Lake hills, and with good reason, since no 

 one could produce a local specimen. But a communication of 

 the Rev. H. T. Frere crossed my last note, in which he stated 

 that a local example of the Ptarmigan did exist in a museum at 



ZOOLOGIST.— MARCH, 1893. I 



