Tr<ms<irtionsi. 57 



where they were found lying dead or helpless in all directions. 

 So scarce have they become that only one nest rewarded my 

 keenest search during the breeding season. In former years it 

 would have been an easy matter to find sixty or seventy nests in 

 Troqueer alone. All the Coots went off at the end of November, 

 but only a pair or two here and there returned in March. 



On the Sol way Firth indications of an approaching severe 

 winter were early seen in the shape of immense flocks of different 

 kinds of Geese, Ducks, and other wild fowls, and towards the end of 

 the storm the flocks of Geese and Ducks became larger than the 

 oldest fisherman on the Sol way remembers to have seen. Just at 

 the beginning of the storm, on the 2d or 3d December, I was 

 going to Southemess in the Kirkbean 'Bus. The evening was 

 intensely frosty, and the thick fog was convei'ted into ice crystals, 

 which seemed to chill one to the very bones. The passengers 

 were talking about the weather, and one old lady remarked to the 



rest of us that " (a well-known gunner resident at Carsethorn) 



has seen some awfu' big flocks o' geese oot on the banks, and he 

 says we're gaun tae have a terrible winter ! " — a prediction you 

 will allow that was fulfilled to the letter. The most plentiful sjjecies 

 of Goose was the Barnacle Goose, of which I saw some immense 

 flocks. Dui-iug the winter these flocks went backwards and for- 

 wards between the fields and the Solway banks as the tides ebbed 

 and flowed. Numbers of them were shot — a friend of mine at Cargen 

 getting fifteen to his own hand in one afternoon in February. 

 A correspondent, writing from Port Marj'^, states that he came 

 upon a large flock sitting in a field near the shore. He adds that 

 they were the tamest " wild " birds he ever saAv, as they allowed 

 him to walk right vip to them and examine them at his leisure. 

 The Grey Lag and the Bean Goose were numerous on Lochar 

 Moss in the beginning of the storm, but they did not remain long, 

 and did not return until March and April. One of the keepers 

 on the moss told me he observed in March a flock of fifteen Geese 

 remarkable for their pure white colour ; but as he had no gun 

 with him at the time, the species was not identified. He was 

 very close to them, and felt quite cei-tain they were none of the 

 species in the habit of visiting Lochar. The various Ducks were 

 in great abundance, driven here fr-om their usual northern haunts 

 by the extreme severity of the storm. Amongst the scarcer 

 species Pintails and Longtailed Ducks were tolerably frequent. 

 During the winter months, and even till comparatively late in 



5 



