90 NoTES ON THE BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
locally may be expected any spring. I have, however, as yet 
no definite record of its having nested in the county and this 
is the more curious since, as Sir Richard Graham informs 
me, Wigeon now breed (thanks originally to his experiments 
with pinioned birds) in increasing numbers near Netherby, 
Cumberland.!53 One of four pinioned birds which I turned 
down at Capenoch laid eggs in 1912, all of which were un- 
fertile, and in Autumn the birds escaped. 
In 1913 a male Wigeon was seen at Penfillan (Keir) on 
12th May; a pair was seen near Lann (Tynron) on 1st June; 
two pair on Waterside Moor (Keir) on 9th June; and a pair 
near Capenoch on 11th June: these dates and the fact that 
pairs were seen together were hopeful, but no nest or young 
were discovered. Mr Maurice Portal informs me that a young 
male was shot at Loch Etterick (Closeburn) on 1st Septein- 
ber, 1920, and that another was seen; these birds were rather 
late hatched and he thinks that, without doubt, they had 
been bred in the immediate neighbourhood. 
On 13th October, 1910, a female was shot out of a lot of 
seven or eight at Crawfordton Loch (Glencairn), and on 14th 
September, 1917, I shot a young male at Auchensell Loch 
(Durisdeer). Three Wigeons were shot at Dalswinton (Kirk- 
mahoe) at the end of January, 1912, the first killed there for 
years. A male, shot at Newtonairds (Holywood) in October, 
1920, was the first ever seen there. Wigeon are common 
winter visitants to the Lochmaben lochs and our local shore- 
shooters tell me that the species is now more numerous than 
ten years ago. 
[The AMERICAN WIGEON: Marveca Americana 
(Gmel.). I am informed that a male of this species was shot 
by Mr James Kirkpatrick near Longbridgemuir (Ruthwell) 
about the end of November, 1918, and, though it found its 
way to the kitchen, was identified before being so inappropri- 
ately dealt with. It was not alone but in company with five 
or six more birds which, to Mr Kirkpatrick, seemed of the 
same species. 
153 Sir Richard Graham: in litt., 4th January, 1921, 
