98 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Keswick in 1841. Subsequently I discovered that this bird had 

 existed in the local collection of John Hutton, a guide and native 

 of Keswick. Hutton formed his collection in the year 1785. 

 Budworth, who wrote in 1795, was apparently the first to refer 

 to the birds preserved in Hutton's museum, but this only in 

 reference to the Dotterel. 



The author of the ' Observations, chiefly Lithological,' visited 

 the Lake district in 1803, and he describes the contents of the 

 local museums pretty minutely. Hutton's museum delighted him 

 for two reasons. Though small, it was well arranged, and Hutton 

 himself was able to give him much local information. He names 

 five and twenty of the more interesting species of birds contained 

 in Hutton's museum, the Ptarmigan being included between the 

 Red and Black Grouse. He does not tell us whether the speci- 

 mens of birds were labelled or not, but his reason for mentioning 

 them was that they were local ; otherwise no special interest 

 attaches to them. They are mentioned only by their scientific 

 names. It appears to me, as I have stated in the ' Fauna of 

 Lakeland,' that the fact that the Ptarmigan is thus recorded to 

 have been represented in Hutton's local museum as early as 1803 

 goes far to support Dr. Heysham's statement as to its existing 

 locally. The bird may have been obtained as early as 1785, or 

 may have existed in Hutton's possession before ever he thought 

 of forming his museum. 



But we must not lose sight of the fact that the Rev. H. T. 

 Frere saw this bird as late as 1841 ; and that he learnt orally, or 

 from a label attached, that the bird had been killed on Skiddaw. 

 What became of this historical link with the past, finally, is more 

 than I can say ; for the museum itself was broken up before I was 

 born. Hutton died on the 19th of March, 1831. His daughter, 

 in whose charge Mr. Frere found the museum in 1841, died on 

 the L4th of December, 1855. For some few years before her 

 death, Miss Hutton had been selling off articles as purchasers 

 wanted. She finally sold the remains of the collection, formed in 

 1785, some six or twelve months before her death. I may add 

 that the catalogue of Crosthwaite's museum is in my possession, 

 and shows that there was no Ptarmigan in the hands of Peter 

 Crosthwaite. 



A writer, who has prudently veiled his identity, states in the 

 'Annals of Scottish Natural History' (No. 5, p. 02), that I base 



