108 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



respectively) I was luckily able to notify Mr. Bolam 

 in time for inclusion in his newly -published work. The 

 third occurred during the present spring — in May, 

 1912 — at a moorland loch in Selkirkshire, where I was 

 told that a pair had nested in the previous year also. 

 It only remains to add that the two stations colonized 

 in 1911, were both re-occupied in the present spring, 

 though only by single pairs. 



Little Grebe {Coh/mhus r. ruficoUis). — In this con- 

 nexion it may be worth adding that during the two 

 past springs, I have found the Dabchick breeding in — 

 I think* — all the seven Border counties within my 

 survey, including one instance in the highlands of Sel- 

 kirkshire, where Mr Evans (Fauna of Tiveed, p. 242) 

 had, at that time, no direct evidence of its nesting. 



Ringed Plover {Charadrius h. hiaticula). — Up to a 

 fcAV years ago, I had never met with this species nesting 

 inland on any of the Border moorlands. It is, of course, 

 possible that, in so wide an area, an odd pair or two vasbV 

 have done so unobserved. The first river colonized was 

 the Coquet (see British Birds, Vol. V., p. 53), then the 

 upper Breamish, and several other spots as set out by 

 Mr. Bolam {torn, supra cit., pp. 513-4), on some of which 

 it now abounds. During the present spring (1912) it 

 has yet further extended its range to the twin Border- 

 rivers, North Tyne and Rede water, on neither of \A'hich 

 had it ever appeared before ; as well as to, at least, two 

 moorland loughs in my neighbourhood (Houxty). Should 

 the invasion continue on its present scale, the Ringed 

 Plover promises to rival the Common Sandpiper in local 

 ubiquity , 



* Throughout the wilder regions of the Border, county boundaries 

 (often, in fact, the Anglo-Scottish march) are frequently very ill- 

 defined. There may, or may not, be a sheep-fence : sometimes it is 

 merely the " watershed " — " where the waters from Heaven divide " 

 — or an imaginary line drawn froin caini to caini. Thus one may not 

 know, within hundreds of yards, in which county (or coimtry) one may 

 happen to be, without reference to the Ordnance map anfl a compass. 

 I admit I pay no attention to these minor details. 



