BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 93 
staffer in Nithsdale, 1830-1864 ; he had at one time been in 
service on the Dalswinton estate (Kirkmahoe) and his 
brothers John and Robert were foresters there all their lives. 
In the Naturalist, 1854, it is recorded that Crossbills 
bred in an old fir-plantation in Kirkmahoe ; "for some years 
the nests have been found regularly with young."* 
Robert Gray writes in 1871 : " The common Crossbill 
is also very plentiful in Dalswinton woods near Dumfries, 
where many nests have been obtained every year."f and in 
1876 the species is recorded as breeding in Dalscone Wood 
(Dumfries). t 
Wilham Hastings, the taxidermist, states that nests 
" with young birds have been taken in Dalswinton ' Big 
Wood,' and I have had them from Raehills, and seen them 
in Closeburn the whole season through. . . . The Crossbill 
is a very uncertain visitant to this country, many years 
elapsing and not one being seen or heard. However, when 
they do come, a few pairs often remain with us to breed 
and rear their young. "§ 
In 1878 it was recorded that they had entirely disappeared 
from the Dalswinton woods, || but Mr. R. Service, in his 
diary of June 20th, 1888, writes : " Robert Maxwell, 
Forester Hall, Dalswinton, tells me the Crossbills are at 
Dalswinton now, and bred there winter of 1887-1888."lf 
Mr. D. Tait writes me that when he first went as gamekeeper 
to Dalswinton in 1874 they were very plentiful, but that 
they left some fourteen years later ; " Mabie Moss " states 
in 1890 : " Dalswinton used to be a favourite haunt, and so 
was Raehills ; but I beheve they have left both locahties 
for some years."** 
* Naturalist, 1854, Vol. IV:, p. 51. 
t Birds of West Scotland, 1871, p. 153. 
% Dumfries Courier, September 12th, 1876. 
§ Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, November 4th, 1887. 
ii Op. cit., October 4th, 1878. 
^ R. Service's MS. Diary, June 20th, 1888. 
** Dumfries Courier and Herald, January 7th, 1890. 
