BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
November, while " Mabie Moss" records that a Ring- 
Ouzel was shot near Dumfries on December 9th, 1892,* 
a remarkably late date, though not unprecedented. 
The nest is seldom found at an altitude of less than 
seven hundred feet, and usually away from the haunts of 
man amidst rocks and rough heather ; such a situation is 
shown in my photograph here reproduced. "Mabie Moss 
writes of a nest built in an evergreen bush in the garden 
of Townhead Farmj (Closeburn), a truly strange choice of 
locality. Dr. Anstruther Davidson, in 1888, speaks of 
the parishes of Kirkconnel and Sanquhar as "the home 
par excellence " of this species, and he mentions a pair of 
birds which, owing to the destruction of their nests and 
eggs, built three nests and laid twelve eggs between 
April 24th and May 19th.t 
Pied varieties are rare, but have been met with, and 
Mr. R. Service informs me that one with an almost entirely 
white head was killed near Closeburn on October 13th, 1893. 
THE WHEATEAR. Saxicola oenanthe (Linnaeus). 
Local names— Stanechacker ; Dyker ; Dykie. 
" Stane Chack ! 
De'il tak' ! 
They who harry my nest 
Will never rest, 
Will meet the pest ! 
De'il break their lang back 
Wha my eggs wad tak' tak'." 
Chambers' " Popular Rhymes of Scotland.'' 
A common summer-visitant throughout the county. 
The Wheatear is included in a list of birds of the parish of 
St Mungo, in 1794, as a bird of passage.§ Sir William 
Jardine, writing in 1839, says that they arrive during the 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, December 9th, 1892. 
t Op. cit., January 22nd, 1891. 
% Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc., November 10th, 1888. 
§ Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. XI., p. 389. 
