10 BIBDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
the Firth of Forth and the valley of the Nith. Aigle Gill 
a farm near AUonby, must be about opposite the mouth 
of the Nith, as indeed the map shows. It was shot on a 
ploughed field. I am busy, and will only add that having 
asked the brothers Mann to look out for S deseHx they 
shot this as a candidate. . . . Saunders, Seebohm and 
Sharpe handled it in the flesh, and all agreed about its 
being ' Isabelline.' " This Cumberland specimen is the 
only record of the occurrence of this species m Great 
Britain The distinguishing characteristics of the Isabelhne 
Wheatear may be thus summed up : " It is larger, more 
tawny, and has more black in its comparatively short 
tail than any Common Wheatear ; the colour of the under- 
wing is much lighter, and the bill and tarsi are longer. ] 
THE WHINCHAT. Pratincola rvbetra (Linnaeus). 
" I have heard 
Where melancholy plovers hovering screamed, 
The partridge-call, at gloamin's lovely hour, 
Far o'er the ridges break the tranqml hush ; 
And morning larks ascend with songs of joy. 
Where erst the whinchat chirped from ^^n^ .*» ,f 
James Geahame.—" BrifisA GeorsMW ' (February). 
A common .ummer-visitanl to aU .uitable locaUties where there are copse., 
and tangled, rank herbage. 
The above lines, written at Mount Anna,n ^^^^ ^'^'^ 
of 1808 refer to the improvement of moorland by ploughmg 
and cultivation which deprived this species of many a 
favourite nesting-site. 
The Whinchat arrives here at the end of April or m 
May, and departs for its winter-quarters m Africa m 
September, occasionally lingering tUl October. 
The interior of the nest is usuaUy neatly lined with fine 
grass or horsehair, but " Mabie Moss " has recorded a 
Whmchat laying in an unlined nest in Upper Nithsdale.f 
* Man. Brit. Birds, 1899, p. 22. 
t Dumfries Courier and Herald, June 30th, 1891. 
