"The Birds of Dumfriesshire " 21 



Those "[of doubtful occurrence]" should be [30] instead 

 of "[29]," since on farther consideration I doubt whether the 

 Red-Backed Shrike should be included otherwise than such. 

 This change alters the number of "occasional Visitors " to 29, 

 but the occurrence recently of the Ibis replaces these former 

 figures. The total therefore remains 218, to which must be 

 added [40], not "[39] [Introduced Species]" and those "[of 

 doubtful occurrence]." (p. xcvii.) 



The following notes refer to 



THE BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 



THE MISTLE-THRUSH. A nest of this species wars found 

 (1910) so early as March 20th near Thornhill (Morton). 



THE BLACKBIRD. A white variety was seen at Closeburn in 

 1911 for the fourth year in succession. I saw a bird of the year 

 this spring at Capenoch (Keir), which, though white with pale 

 coloured legs and beak, had normally coloured eyes. 



THE RING-OUZEL. This .species first made its appearance 

 locally hi 1910, on April 10th; a somewhat early date. 



[THE BLACK REDSTART. My correspondent, Mr. WilUam 

 Evans, has in his possession the nest and white eggs of the 

 Yellow Bunting found by Mr. R. Service at Duncow, near 

 Dumfries, on June 16th, 1886, which helped to disprove the 

 previous allegation that the Black Redstart had nested in that 

 neighbourhood.] (p. 14.) 



[THE NIGHTINGALE. It is interesting to note that the first 

 specimen recorded in Scotland was obtained on the Isle of May 

 on May 9th, 1911.2] 



THE WOOD-WREN. Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown, in his Fauna of 

 the North-West Highlands and Skye, points out that Yarrell 

 stated in 1843 and 1845, that " not one record exists " of this 

 species in Scotland. As it was regarded as a Scottish bird 

 both by MacGillivray and Sir William Jardine, it is indeed 

 difficult to say why Yarrell should have disregarded these com- 

 petent ornithologists. At any rate I am prepared to abide by 



2 Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist., 1911, p. 132. 



