BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 9 
first week of March,* which nowadays would be considered 
early ; in 1907 this species was noticed near Dumfries 
on the 19th,t but it is not until towards the end of that 
month, or in the early days of April, that the bird usually 
puts in an appearance. Migratory individuals often arrive 
for a month later, especially on the Dumfriesshire " Banks," 
but these birds do not nest in the county, and are simply 
resting on their way further north. Amongst these later 
arrivals maybe detected some members of the Greenland race 
(Saxicola oenanthe leucorrhoa), which are larger and generally 
less neat-looking birds than our own nesting-species. 
In the nesting-season the Wheatear is most plentifully 
found in the pastoral, arable and lacustrine districts, where 
our loose stone- walls or dykes " afford capital nesting- 
places, and rabbit-burrows are often utihzed for this purpose. 
In August and September, prior to migration, a general 
crowding-down " to the littoral districts is observed. 
The Wheatear winters in the countries south and east 
of the Mediterranean, and in some seasons it leaves us as 
early as the end of August ; but more generally the 
emigration takes place about the middle of September, 
and a few laggards may usually be found on our littoral 
in October. 
Mr. R. Service writes me that " the universal local 
name for this bird in Dumfriesshire is Dyker, i.e., owing 
to its habits of sitting and flitting along the tops of the 
stone-dykes." But I have not heard it so called in the 
north-western parts of the county. 
[The IsABELLiNE Wheatear {Saxicola isabellina, Riippell) 
has not been recorded from this coimty, but in a letter 
to Mr. R. Service, H. A. Macpherson writes : " I think 
it only neighbourly to tell you that the new avis shot on 
November 11th, 1887, is a young Isabelline Wheatear. 
Very likely it reached us from Siberia vid Heligoland, 
* Nat. Lib., 1839, Vol. XI., p. 108. 
t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1908, p. 133. 
