76 Novres ON THE BirDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
in the vicinity but escaped. I heard rumours of a pair of 
these birds being seen, in the late summer of 1920, near 
Courance (Kirkmichael) and Mr Maurice Portal informs me 
that on 1st September, 1920, he saw a Hen Harrier near 
Loch Etterick, in Closeburn parish, which adjoins Kirk- 
michael. On ard September he saw a male and two females, 
one of which appeared to be an old bird, quartering the moor 
above LTownfoot loch (Closeburn). The keeper on the beat 
subsequently told me that he had seen Hen Harriers all the 
summer and it has been suggested that these birds bred 
there in 1920, but satisfactory evidence of this is not forth- 
coming. 
The COMMON BUZZARD (p. 188) P. J. Selby 
states in 1831 that ‘‘ in the hilly districts of Dumfries, Sel- 
kirk and Peebles, it is very numerous in the breeding 
season, and almost every precipitous dell or rock contains 
an eyry. #28 William MacGillivray writes that in the autumn 
of 1832 he saw several Buzzards circling over the upper part 
of the valley of Moffat Water.!29 I am confident that in 
those days the species was comparatively common and 
although I am not aware that the Buzzard has nested of 
recent years in Dumfriesshire I think it is now seen more 
frequently in autumn and winter than ten years ago. One 
was seen at close quarters at Capenoch (Keir) on 5th Novem- 
ber, 1910, and I saw another at Chanlock (Penpont) on 8th 
November, 1911. One was seen near Langholm on toth 
June, 1913, and another on Capenoch moor in June, 1929; 
having been seen in these months leads me to expect that 
Buzzards may possibly have nested not far off. One was 
shot near Closeburn in October, 1920, and that season I 
more than once met with Buzzards in the upper valley of 
Scaur Water. During the years 1915 to 1920 four Buzzards 
were seen in Moffat parish,'%? but nothing is recorded as to 
128 Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northwmber- 
land and Durham, Vol. I. (1831), p. 248. 
129 W. MacGillivray: Description of the Rapacious Birds of 
Great Britain (1836), p. 136. 
130 The Scotsman, 26th February, 1921, 
