74 TRANSACTIONS. 
sanguinary struggle had proceeded until one of the combatants 
succumbed, a victim to the instinet of its kind. That richest 
plumaged of British birds, the Kingfisher (Adcedo /spida) is rare. 
The only place I have ever seen it is on the Cairn, in the vicinity 
of Maxwelton. The Swallow (Airundo Rustica), the Martin 
(Hirundo Urbica), and the Sand Martin (Airundo Riparia) are all 
common. <A few Swifts (Cypselus Apus) still nest with us, but it 
is a rare bird compared with what it was at one time. <A two- 
storey thatched house which occupied a somewhat isolated site in 
our little town of Moniaive used to be a favourite nesting place, 
but the house was pulled down some years ago, and the birds have 
never returned in anything like the same numbers since. The 
Night Jar (Caprimulgus Europeus) is said to nest in some of the 
more remote nooks of the parish, but I never even saw the bird 
personally until this summer, when a single bird was observed for 
two nights in succession hawking for moths in my own garden. 
The Ring Dove (Columba Palumébus) is abundant. This year I 
found a Ring Dove’s nest, containing young, placed in a hawthorn 
tree at an elevation of not more than four feet from the ground, 
and side by side with it a nest of the blackbird containing eggs. 
The low elevation for a Ring Dove’s nest and the companionship 
appeared to me alike remarkable. The Pheasant (Phasianus 
Colchicus) is common, and the same may be said of the Black 
Grouse (Zetrao Tetrix), the Red Grouse (Lagopus Scoticus), and 
the Common Partridge (Pedrix Cinerea). The Golden 
Plover (Charadrius Pluvialis) is met with on all our 
hills. The Lapwing (Vanellus Cristatus) is plentiful. This bird, 
as is well known, is a careful mother, and in the stirring days of 
persecution her watchfulness against intrusion is said to have 
often proved fatal to the lonely wanderers on the moors and fells. 
The Heron (Ardea Cinerea) is not uncommon in the district, pro- 
bably owing to the circumstance that we have an old-established 
heronry at Craigmuie. The most of the trees were unfortunately 
blown down during the gales of December, 1883, and January, 
1884, and I am disposed to think there has beena marked diminu- 
tion in the number of birds since. The Curlew (Vumenius Arquata) 
is very common. The Common Red-Shank (Zotanus Calidris) we 
have recorded for one locality, Loch Urr, on the boundary line 
between Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire, where a few pairs 
annually come to breed. The Common Sand-Piper (Zotanus 
Fiypoleuca) is met with along all our streams. The Wood- 
