BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
certainly seem equally strange that Sir William Jardine did 
not publish a criticism of the record, supposing he had after- 
wards discovered that it was not genuine. I have seen the 
correspondence on the subject which passed between Mr. 
R. Service and Howard Saunders early in 1885, and it 
seems to me only fair to note that in one of his letters Mr. 
Service points out that in 1858 Shaw introduced Virginian 
Quail at Drumlanrig, and he asks : "Did Q. discors make 
the journey along with the Bob-whites ? "* Mr. Service had, 
however, no proof that this was the case, and at the time 
of this correspondence Shaw and Jardine were both dead, 
Hastings was too old to be rehable; and, it is stated, W. G. 
Gibson was no naturahst.f Probably Howard Saunders 
had good reasons for ignoring Mr. Service's question, and for 
so strongly affirming the genuineness of the specimen. 
The allegations that this species has occurred in Yorkshire 
and in Cambridgeshire have been rejected after full inquiry ; 
and as regards the Danish specimen, Herr Herluf Winge most 
courteously writes me from Copenhagen : " To-day (January 
22nd, 1909) I have again examined our stuffed specimen 
of Anas (Querquedula discors) from Saby, April, 1886. 
As stated by my late brother, the left foot is a Httle deformed, 
the inner toe being swollen and contorted, and the hind-toe 
without a claw ; otherwise the specimen is in quite perfect 
condition. Damage such as this is frequently to be seen 
in frost-bitten birds in our Zoological Garden, but it may 
also occur in wild birds. Certainly I have included the 
species in my Hst of Danish birds, ... but I confess 
that I have been somewhat influenced by the Ibis list and 
other pubhcations taking the recorded European specimens 
for vaHd, and I admit that a doubt always will chng about 
the Danish record." 
This species, an inhabitant of eastern North America, 
migrates in winter as far south as the West Indies, Mexico 
and Guatemala. 
* R. Service, in litt. to Howard Saunders, February 23rd, 1885. 
t Id., February 18th, 1885. 
