i8 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE AND OTHER 

 BIRDS ON THE WHITE LOCH OF MYRTON, 

 WIGTOWNSHIRE. 



By Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart. 



I AM glad to be able to record the nesting of this fine 

 Grebe (Podicipes cristatus] in Wigtownshire during the present 

 season. As the circumstances of its arrival in the sanctuary 

 at Monreith are somewhat remarkable, perhaps it may 

 prove of some interest to your readers that I should put 

 them on record. The White Loch of Myrton, a sheet of 

 water of about 100 acres in the park at Monreith, has 

 been treated as a sanctuary for wildfowl during more than 

 fifty years, and since boyhood I have paid constant atten- 

 tion to the species frequenting it. In the spring of 1894, 

 when on a visit to Lord Dartmouth at Patshull in Stafford- 

 shire, I was greatly interested in the numbers of Great 

 Crested Grebes on the mere there, and I begged my host 

 to endeavour to rear some young birds which I might intro- 

 duce to my sanctuary. Owing, however, to the peculiar 

 nidification of Grebes, it was found impossible to fulfil my 

 wish. By a singular coincidence, on 7th November in the 

 same year, I detected for the first time a solitary imma- 

 ture specimen of this bird on the White Loch. It remained 

 till the great frost drove it away, but it returned in spring, 

 and remained all the following summer and mild winter 

 of 1 895 -96, still alone. However, during my absence in 

 spring it must have secured a mate, for now there are 

 three or four young ones disporting themselves with their 

 parents. I shall be glad to learn of other instances of this 

 Grebe nesting in Scotland. 



Perhaps a note of the species of aquatic birds observed 

 on this lake may be worth preserving. 



HOOPER or WHISTLING SWAN, Cygnns musicus. A flight 

 of fifteen settled once and remained throughout the 

 day. 



WILD DUCK, Anas boscas. Breeds in great numbers in 

 surrounding woods. 



