56 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



moorlaud lochs lyiug embosomed among some of the finest 

 mountaiu ranges in our district." That, as you will note, 

 applied to Wigtownshire at the time, and does so yet. But else- 

 where in our area it was only after 1680 that a great extension 

 of the Redshank took place, by which its breeding haunt>s have 

 spread from the merses and mosses along shore to almost every 

 suitable place within our limits. Long after my boyhood, when 

 nesting rambles occupied, in their season, every hour of spare 

 time, there were no Redshanks to be found breeding away from 

 strictly shore localities. As I have said, they are everywhere 

 uow-a-days in spring. 



In winter, of course, they are veiy abundant, serving most 

 efficiently as sentries to eveiy one of the wild birds within 

 hearing of their alarm calls, which are emitted on the slightest 

 appearance of anything suspicious. 



Spotted Redshank (Totanusfuscus). 

 This is a very scarce bird, and it is only within the last few 

 years that we have been able to establish it as an undoubted 

 migrant here. Those acquainted with the calls of the sea birds 

 were quite convinced of having heard it, but until Mr. Robert 

 M'Call shot a specimen at the mouth of one of the creeks near 

 Carsethorn in October, 1900, its actual occurrence in Solway 

 had not been put beyond doubt. 



Greenshank (Totanus canescens). 

 By the end of August, and thenceforward for some five or 

 six weeks or more, this species is often met with in certain 

 favoured spots. The mouths of the Dee and Urr, as well as 

 the Nith, are frequented, and they come considerable distances 

 up the tidal portions of these waters to feed on gravel banks. 

 There is a suspicion that the Greenshank breeds somewhere in 

 the recesses of the Galloway or Dumfriesshire hills, as young 

 birds have been shot in a very early stage of plumage. 



Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica). 

 With the first big rush of migration in late August or earliest 

 September come the forerunners of this interesting species. 

 Thereafter their numbers steadily increase until October ends, 



