432 The Rarer Birds of the Solway Area. 



Following that a gentleman from Hurlford wrote to the news- 

 papers and said that was all nonsense, as any amount of them 

 could be got there. Some of my friends in Glasgow were de- 

 lighted to hear it, and the gentleman took them down to see the 

 birds, but they turned out to be the common whitethroat. 



The Turtle Dove is the subject of the inspired writer's 

 beautiful description of spring — " The voice of the turtle is again 

 heard in the land." It comes from Barbary and other countries 

 of Northern Africa, and settles down in the sylvan shades of 

 England, and if you ever listened to its soft melody there you 

 would appreciate the poetic description to the full. It comes 

 over the Border \ery seldom. 



The Quail is the familiar bird of historic literature, but by 

 no means well known to us in the bodily form. Long ago it must 

 have been of annual occurrence, because old people will tell 

 you how they listened to the calls of the quail in the summer 

 evenings. During all my experience the quail has never been 

 seen except in the fine season of 1893, when they suddenly 

 descended on all the fields of ryegrass between Cumnock and 

 Annan, and no one could understand what their peculiar calls 

 were until the mowers discovered their nests. The chick shown 

 is that of a quail taken on the farm of Rotchell. 



The Spotted Drake shown was got at the pond of Terregles. 



The Great Crested Grebe completes the list of breeding 

 rarities. During the last few years it has been found breeding 

 at Lochmaben and the White Loch of Myrtoun, where Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell affords a refuge to all such. 



IV. 



Historical Species. 



Of the Crane, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, to whom I have 

 referred, wrote — I can find no evidence of cranes having ever 

 bred in Scotland, but that the bird was well known in Scotland 

 and much sought after in the sixteenth century is indisputable. 

 As for instance the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of 

 Scotland contain the following: — "1503. Item, the XXI. day 

 of December, to ane man brocht quik crannes and quik pertrikis 

 to the King fra William Cunninghame of Dumfries — five 

 shillings." 



That is \-ery interesting, but it must not be forgotten that 



