426 The Rarer Birds of the Solway Area. 



•eastern European form. There have been two occurrences here, 

 •one made known by Sir William Jardine in October, 1864, when 

 he found its feathers after the bird had been devoured by a cat, 

 and another got at Mabie by a party out shooting. 



The Bee-eater is another of those fine south-eastern birds 

 ^vhich make long migration journeys. We have one record, so 

 long ago as October, 1832, near Kirkmaiden. 



Pallas's Sand Grouse — Instances in 1863 and in 1888. It 

 is one of the most interesting birds known. In 1888 there were 

 numerous paragraphs in the newspapers of the great Tartar 

 invasion. At that time we had rather more than our share of 

 it, for a pretty large flock, at least 60 strong, was located for the 

 whole summer on fields near Southerness, where no more suit- 

 able spot could have been got, because in its native haunts it is 

 ■confined to open sandy wastes, where the sun shines with a fierce 

 heat. When in full plumage long filaments extend for a foot 

 and a half from the wings, and the same from the tail. Another 

 curious feature of the bird is found in the rat-like pads it has for 

 feet. They fly with great swiftness. At that time also some of 

 the naturalist M.P.'s got a bill passed in hot haste for the preser- 

 vation of this bird for five years, but it so happened that at that 

 moment not a single bird of the kind remained in the country, 

 the survivors no doubt having gone back to Chinese Tartary, and 

 none have been seen here since. 



The Black Winged Stilt has the distinction of having the 

 longest legs of any known bird in proportion to its size. We 

 Tnight be a little proud of the fact that it was first recorded as a 

 British species from a specimen got here. 



Sir Robert Sibbald's " Scotia Illustrata" (1684) records that 

 " this bird was sent to me by William Dalmahoy, one of the 

 ■officers of the King's Bodyguard, who is very skilled in the 

 history of birds, and who transfixed it by a spear in a lake near 

 the town of Dumfries, where another was also afterwards stabbed, 

 and lost by the carelessness of a soldier." It is interesting to 

 note that the family of Dalmahoy is still serving its country in the 

 .same way as that old soldier did. 



Of the Night Heron only one is recorded in this area, as 

 taken in the river Cluden in 1825, and the specimen, which 

 belonged to the late Sir William Jardine, is in the Royal Scottish 

 Museum. 



