84 NATURAL History NOTES FROM ANNANDALE. 
the first of the hirundines to reach our shores. When in the 
company of two naturalist friends, I saw a pair of this species on 
the afternoon of Saturday, the 7th. This date is the earliest at 
which I have seen the sand martin, and I think the occurrence 
may be taken as a presage of an early summer. The martins 
observed on 7th April were catering for flies above the river 
opposite Milnbie Quarry, where they, of course, nest. Since 
then the numbers have considerably increased. 
While the fine weather brings our summer migrants earlier it 
is not all in their favour. In some years after such a fine period 
there is apt to be a recurrence of wintry conditions late in the 
spring, when the birds are less able to bear it. Many die in 
consequence. This was very marked by the case in 1886, when 
many swallows died after their arrival at their nesting haunts for 
the summer. It already seems as if we were to have a similar 
cold spell in the present year. The earliest summer visitor 
noted by me last year was the wheatear. I saw several of these 
birds on April 7th, 1905, when the ground was under snow. As 
their constitution differs greatly from that of members of the 
swallow family the cold did not affect them in any appreciable 
degree. 
An interesting case of the nesting of the woodcock was 
reported to me from Hoddom. I in turn reported the circum- 
stance to Mr Murdoch, editor of the “ Natural History ’’ page of 
the Yorkshire Weekly Post, who replied in his column :— It 
is interesting to know that woodcocks are breeding in your neigh- 
bourhood. These birds breed in Yorkshire, also quite regularly 
in certain wooded parts of Westmorland. I am inclined to think 
that they breed in various parts of the North of England to a 
far greater extent than is generally supposed. In the nesting 
season they are very wary, and few birds, in the place chosen for 
their nest and in its construction, also having regard to their own 
plumage, display the protective imitation faculty so beautifully 
as woodcocks. They probably breed oftener in Dumfriesshire 
than is generally known. If you looked into the pages of that 
delightful book, ‘My Strange Pets,’ by Richard Bell of Castle 
O’er, in your own county (Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons. 1905, 
p. 238), you will find an interesting passage on the subject.” 
In May, along with a few friends, I paid a visit to the large 
gullery on Bowness Moss, in Cumberland, where, I dare say, 
