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moors. The Goldfincli is very rare. Only twice have I known it 

 to nest in the last four years — once in Kirkconnell and once in 

 Sanquhar. The Common Linnet probably breeds in the district, but 

 I have so far failed to locate it. The Twite and Stonechat have 

 been reported — the former, I think, correctly, but the latter, I 

 think, must have been a mistake, as I have never seen the bird at 

 any time. Starlings and Swifts occupy all the favourable sites in 

 the walls of the old castle and other building-s. The Swifts, being 

 late arrivals find the democratic sparrows in possession of every 

 available hole, and the first week or so is occupied with their 

 uncompensated eviction, and the subsequent occupation of the dis- 

 puted premises, after wliich their shrill screaming is little heard 

 till their brood is hatched and they congregate again for the 

 autumn mig-ration. The Magpie and Carrion Crow still continue 

 to flourish in spite of guns and trai)s. Jackdaws nest in many of 

 the chimney stalks in the town, but their cliief strongholds are the 

 rocky steeps in Kello, Spango, and Polveoch burns. Though 

 there is but one rookery in the district, yet it is lai-ge enough to 

 supply rooks for the whole shire. Much has been written for and 

 against tliis bird, and my own observations lead me to regard him 

 as being quite as black as lie is painted. Ilis principles are purely 

 Socialistic — minus the dynamite. See him as he alights ou the 

 fanner's field, and paces with slow and dignified stride, with head 

 erect and swelling breast — why he seems to be lord of the soil, or 

 at least gives you the impression that he believes every rood of 

 groimd should maintain its rook. In this country they are far too 

 numerous. To a certain extent they are useful, more especially in 

 the autumn, when, retiring to the hills, they consume the larvae so 

 destructive to the pasture. For the greater part of the season he 

 is a thief and a robber, living by reapmg on what he bestowed no 

 labour. It was not always so, however. The rook, like the genus 

 homo, was created with perfectly innocent tastes, but he, too, fell, 

 became civilised, and from being chiefly an insect feeder, he de- 

 veloped a taste for grain, potatoes, and other useful cereals. This 

 is where he is at present. To what depths he may attain, time 

 only can tell. In the nesting season their depredations among 

 eggs are simply enormous. They make no distinction, but quarter 

 the fields systematically, take every q^^ or young bird, either 

 eating them near the spot or carrying them home to their nests. 

 When the rook has removed the last ^^^ he very carefully turns 

 over the lining of the nest as if to ensure his having secured 



