184 The Avifauna of the Solway Area. [Sess. 



the country ; and in our area especially, a flock of thirty or forty 

 strong is by no means uncommon, and causes no remark now. 



The turtle-dove visits us very rarely indeed now. Thirty 

 years ago it was a not infrequent summer visitant to at least 

 the border district of Dumfriesshire. 



The next species to be noticed is the black-game. There 

 has been a most noticeable falling-off for years past. The 

 total area under heather is slowly but surely diminishing, and 

 the peat lands show a serious amount of denudation year after 

 year. 



Once an annual and abundant visitor, the quail comes now 

 at longer and more uncertain intervals. 



Water-rails and coots are evidently increasing in numbers, 

 whUe the opposite has to be said of the golden plover and the 

 lapwing. We rarely see now the huge flocks of these birds 

 that some thirty or more years ago were almost an everyday 

 sight during the autumnal migration. Oyster-catchers have, 

 however, increased to a marked extent. 



Woodcock breed in fair numbers annually, but there is a 

 marked fluctuation in the numbers present. During my 

 experience I am certain that more remain on an average than 

 formerly. The dunlin breeds now with greater frequency, 

 and redshanks are found nesting all over our area to an 

 extent that was very far from being the case previous to 

 about the year 1882. 



Eobert Gray remarks on the scarcity of the knot when he 

 used to visit our coast. That has not been the case for more 

 than twenty years past, for annually they may be seen in 

 autumn in huge clouds that literally darken the air. These 

 are, however, to be found only in the vicinity of Southerness 

 Point. 



The black tern was once a very frequent spring and summer 

 visitant, but now is very rare and intermittent only. The 

 Sandwich tern has at least one small colony now, formerly a 

 visitant only. For a good many years past the common tern 

 has had some considerable extension and augmentation of its 

 breeding flocks. The little tern shows a slight increase. 



The black-headed gull has increased enormously, and many 

 of its habits have been modified to suit the overcrowding of 

 the species that seems imminent. 



