178 



HA RD WICKK S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



smew. Collecting all our purchases, we reach the 

 boat, and carefully packing up our specimens, we 

 decide, as the afternoon is far advanced, and the 

 journey a long beat home, to up and away, especially 

 as the swans are still in the harbour somewhere, and 

 we may perhaps fall in with them. 



We start then and skirt the Pilsea Sands, in the 

 hope of picking up a crippled bird or two, and are 

 not disappointed, for we bag two more single geese 

 ere we reach Thorney Island, and at last get a sight 

 of some seven or eight swans feeding right in under a 

 bank. Oh for five minutes just the other side of that 

 bank ; but as this cannot be we sail steadily on, as 

 far away from them as we can, to pass them and 

 then cross over and sail down on them, as fast as we 

 can go. We manage all this, but they jump at 

 200 yards and sail away, and partly round us, and 

 to our joy go up and on our way to home. Another 

 mile or two, and we sight them again, and thinking 

 of nothing better, we do as we did at first, and this 

 time, amid a lot of quiet excitement, get within 100 

 yards before they again take wing. Once more they 

 go up stream ; but this time not so far, and soon 

 we are drawing on them. Will they wait ? No. 

 Something puts them up, some one way, some 

 another, and now the unexpected happens ; they try 

 to join, and to do this five of them come within 

 sixty yards of the boat. Bang ! bang ! from the 

 S-bore, and down falls the largest of the lot, a fine 

 old male hooper ; another sails away lower and lower 

 in the direction of Dell Quay, and finally disappears, 

 hard hit and never to rise again. This was verified 

 by the bird being caught next morning in a meadow. 

 One swan proved to be just under 20 lbs., and 

 crowned the happiness of all, for the right birds 

 came at last, and made a good finish to as pleasant a 

 day as any gunner ever had. 



On reaching home we found a beautiful bittern had 

 been shot close by, and a fine pair of oyster-catchers. 

 These last we got from the owner, and they now form 

 part of that happy Saturday's spoils. 



" Sea Fowler." 



THE AVIFAUNA OF UPPER NITHSDALE. 



A FTER a long residence in one of the beautiful 

 ■L\. glens which converge at Thornhill on the 

 Nith, Dumfriesshire, I have taken the following notes 

 of the birds of the district. 



During the last thirty years there has been a 

 serious diminution of the birds of prey. The pere- 

 grine falcon and merlin are rare, the kite is almost 

 extinct, while the sparrow-hawk and buzzard are 

 becoming very scarce. The kestrel, however, is 

 common, and may frequently be observed gliding 

 over the cliffs near the sources of our upland streams, 

 or pouncing on barn-door sparrows. Owls are very 

 plentiful. The woods around the ducal residence of 



Drumlanrig, and the large quantity of natural wood 

 which adorns the hillsides along the banks of the 

 tributary streams offers them protection. The 

 tawny owl is the most common. It delights to utter 

 its screech perched on a coniferous tree, and it is 

 the boldest of its kind. The barn-owl is common. 

 The long-eared owl is both rarer and shyer. On one 

 occasion the nest of a barn-owl was found in a rabbit- 

 burrow. 



The missel-thrush and blackbird are very common, 

 although, one summer about nine years ago, we 

 missed their delightful songs entirely. They seemed 

 to have succumbed to the previous severe winter. 

 The song-thrush is rare. The fieldfare comes to us- 

 in immense flocks in October, and in a few days, 

 strips every mountain-ash of its glittering red berries 

 which make these trees so conspicuous after their 

 leaves are shed. The dipper is found in all our 

 streams. The ring-ousel is not uncommon. Every- 

 where in early spring the simple song of the hedge- 

 sparrow greets us. The redbreast and chaffinch are 

 plentiful. The redstart and night-jar are rare. The 

 whin-chat is heard as it hops along our fences built 

 of uncemented whin-stones. The grasshopper- 

 warbler, and the sedge-warbler are rarely heard, 

 but the wheat-ear is common. Its nest is far from 

 being easy to find, on account of these same stone- 

 dykes. 



The wood-warbler and the willow-warbler have 

 increased of late years. The golden-crested wren is- 

 plentiful in our fir-woods. Its nest, Ifhed with 

 feathers, is sometimes blown down from the pendent 

 bough. The wren and the willow-wren aie common.. 

 The lesser white-throat and chitf-chaff are rare. The 

 tree-creeper is more common than appears, for its- 

 nest is most difficult to find. 



The great-tit is rare, the blue-tit and the cole-tit 

 common. The long-tailed tit, to which Mr. Wallace- 

 has given a new significance by pointing out that it is- 

 a form specialised in the British Isles since their 

 division from the Continent, is rather scarce. It 

 makes its wonderfully artistic nest in almost inaccess- 

 ible black-thorn scrub. The pied wagtail is much 

 more common than the grey wagtail. The golden 

 plover and spotted fly-catcher are rare, but the nest 

 of the former is difficult to find. The garden-warbler 

 is not uncommon. The tree and meadow pipit are 

 abundant, so are the skylark and yellow-hammer. 

 We are far from being rich in finches, putting aside 

 the chaffinch. The common linnet is seldom seeu 

 except in flocks in winter. The same may be 

 remarked of the lesser redpoll. 



The house-sparrow, rook, and starling, are ubiqui- 

 tous. The cuckoo is plentiful and arrives about the 

 last days of April. Although it delights to lay in a 

 smaller bird's nest, such as the meadow-pipit, I have 

 got its egg in the nest of a kestrel. The carrion 

 crow and jackdaw are not uncommon. The king- 

 fisher is exceedingly rare. As it commands a price, it 



