SOUECES OF INFORMATION. 
9 
To the Duke of Portland we are indebted for his kind permis- 
sion to obtain a list of the Caithness specimens which are at the 
present time contained in his Grace's collection at Well^eck Abbey, 
all of which were obtained on his Grace's own estates in the above 
county. This list Mr. J. Whitaker, Eainworth Lodge, Mansfield, 
has been so good as to make out for us. 
We have also numerous cuttings from The Field, being con- 
tributions by Messrs. E. I. Shearer and H. Osborne, and by 
Mr. W. Keid, which have been referred to occasionally, when 
necessary, under their proper headings. Other materials will be 
found in the Migration Eeports and Schedules of [the British 
Association Committee on Migration, principally from the Pent- 
land Skerries. 
The above, along with our own note-books, journals, and egg- 
books, the assistance of several kind friends resident in the counties, 
and our personal observations conducted therein, are the materials 
which are at our disposal for this I'auna. If imperfect in the part 
relating to fish, it is simply because a great field for observation 
remains still almost untouched; and, though many species are 
known with almost absolute certainty to occur along the coasts, 
yet the actual results are scarcely sufficient to formulate anything 
like a correct estimate of the faunal value. 
We must also express our heartiest thanks to Captain Savile 
G. Eeid, who has most kindly placed at our disposal the whole con- 
tents of his journals of nesting trips in Sutherland and Caithness, 
whilst engaged along with Colonel Irby in collecting certain 
desiderata in nests, eggs, and birds for the South Kensington 
Museum. These admirably-kept notes are in themselves worthy 
of production, and we regret that the form in which we have 
disposed our other materials precludes us from giving prominence 
to many interesting observations upon certain habits of the rarer 
species, which if not new to all observers, are at least of consider- 
able interest, especially when so happily described as tliey are in 
Captain Eeid's journals. Captain Eeid notes the general scarcity 
of bird-life on the moors and flowlands of East Sutherland and 
West Caithness as remarkable in autumn, " not even a meadow 
