PHYSICAL FEATURES AND CLIMATE lxxiii 
It is to be regretted that such birds as the Eagles and 
Harriers no longer nest in the county, and that the Martins 
and Barn-Owls are not so numerous as formerly ; but it 
is satisfactory to be able to note the arrival within the last 
thirty-five years of the Stock-Dove, Pied Flycatcher, 
and Tufted Duck : and more recently the increasing number 
of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Jays, and Woodcock as 
breeding-species, is a matter for congratulation. The 
arrival of such species can hardly be due to their over- 
crowding in their usual breeding-places, and Mr. R. Service, 
in the paper already quoted, suggests that this " may 
be attributed to some slow and obscure alteration in the 
climate. No evidence, however, can be adduced from 
meteorological records that any such change is in progress." 
Gilbert White, of Selborne, has said that " the weather 
of a district is undoubtedly part of it's natural history,"* 
and the following remarks may not be here out of place. 
The chmate of the county is peculiarly mild and genial, 
the mean temperature for the year, worked out over a 
number of years, being about forty-five degrees. The 
rainfall varies in different localities per annum from 
thirty-five inches at Dumfries (altitude 60 feet), to upwards 
of fifty- two inches at Wanlockhead (altitude 1,409 feet). 
Of course Dumfriesshire gets its share of storms and 
severe weather. Under such circumstances the Lochar 
Moss in the early part of the last century, before being 
agriculturally improved, formed an attractive resort for 
wild-fowl. We read, for example, that during the extra- 
ordinarily hard winter of 1822-1823 " thousands of water- 
fowl found an asylum there.^f But, perhaps, no winter 
is more memorable than that of 1878-1879, of which 
Mr. R. Service wrote at the time : "It is questionable 
if even the most favourable nesting times will replace the 
birds which this winter has destroyed. "J 
* Nat. Hist. Selborne, 1789, p. 287. 
t Dumfries Courier, February 4th, 1823. 
t Op. cit., March 25th, 1879. 
