BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
The seed of the dandelion would seem also to possess 
peculiar attractions for these birds. 
Mr William Laidlaw informs me that a pure white 
Greenfinch was seen on the farm of Crookholm (Canonbie) 
in 1907 and 1908. , j u * « 
Three instances of the capture of a hybrid between a 
Greenfinch and a Goldfinch in a wild state have come 
under my notice. The first, taken near Sanquhar m 
January, 1887, was seen by Mr. R. Service in possession 
of its captor, who told him it had been caught m company 
with some Linnets. Mr. W. J. Halliday writes me from 
Lochmaben that a bird-catcher in 1902 caught a hybrid 
Goldfinch and Greenfinch in a field at Lochvale near 
the Mill Loch, and that he stated the Gol^ch was 
the male parent. Mr. W. Coupland froni Kirkmahoe 
informs me that in 1904 a Goldfinch had for a mate a 
Greenfinch ; the eggs were hatched out successfully and 
a bird-catcher caught one of the hybrids afterwards. 
THE HAWFINCH. Coccothraustes vulgaris, Pallas. 
An uncommon irregular vUitor, but recently found nesting in Eskdale. 
Sir WilUam Jardine in 1839, writing of the distribution 
of the Hawfinch in Great Britain states : In the north 
it is a straggler, but has been killed and seen m the counties 
of Durham and Cumberland, reaching across the border 
to Dumfriesshire ; farther north in Britain we do not 
know of its occurrence."* Dr. Grierson records m his 
"Not^s" for October 17th, 1862, that Thomas MaxweU 
told him that " a specimen was found dead many years 
ago at Blackwood (Keir). They have been got at Drum- 
lanrig."t Robert Gray ^vrote in 1871 that "it has been 
* Vat. Lib., 1839, Vol. XI., p. 269. 
t Grierson's MS. Notes, 1860-1875. 
