TRANSACTIONS. 79 
moors. The Goldfinch 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 buildings. 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 which their shrill screaming is little heard 
till their brood is hatched and they congregate again for the 
autumn migration. The Magpie and Carrion Crow still continue 
to flourish in spite of guns and traps. Jackdaws nest in many of 
the chimney stalks in the town, but their chief strongholds are the 
rocky steeps in Kello, Spango, and Polveoch burns. Though 
there is but one rookery in the district, yet it is large enough to 
supply rooks for the whole shire. Much has been written for and 
against this bird, and my own observations lead me to regard him 
as being quite as black as he is painted. His principles are purely 
Socialistic—minus the dynamite. See him as he alights on the 
farmer’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 
ground 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 larve so 
destructive to the pasture. For the greater part of the season he 
is a thief and a robber, living by reaping 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 
ege's are simply enormous. They make no distinction, but quarter 
the fields systematically, take every egg or young bird, either 
eating them near the spot or carrying them home to their nests. 
When the rook has removed the last egg he very carefully turns 
over the lining of the nest as if to ensure his having secured 
