BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
In no other locality in the county has the Crossbill 
been observed with such regularity as it has in the 
" Big Wood " of Dalswinton ; but since their favourite 
giant pines have been laid low they have not put in an 
appearance there. 
At Dardarroch (Glencairn) this species has often been seen, 
though no nests have been found. By the kindness of 
Mr. R. Martin I have been able to examine specimens of the 
Common Crossbill shot at Dardarroch in the winter of 1888 
and now in his possession. Another specimen labelled 
"Polgowan, August, 1877," interested me particularly, 
because this bird had been recorded as " a young CrossbiU 
sent in to WiUiam Hastings from Polgowan, a sheep-farm 
in Penpont, which had no doubt been bred in that part 
of the county "* ; and I had always wondered why this bird 
had turned up at such a treeless, bleak spot as I know 
Polgowan to be. The explanation was forthcoming when 
Mr. Martin told me that he had killed it with a catapult 
when a boy at Polgowan, in Kirkcudbrightshire. It is a 
bird in the " striped " juvenile plumage, but as the Crossbill 
regularly migrates when in this stage, the specimen itself 
affords no proof that it was bred in the locaUty. " In the 
spring of 1890," so Mr. Henry Martin writes me, " there were 
a great many of the common CrossbiUs in the woods of 
Dardarroch, and had been there as far as I could 
make out continuously for two years, but although I 
looked very carefully I never discovered a nest, nor did 
I see any young birds." Again in 1892, this species is 
recorded as having been seen throughout the year at 
Dardarroch.f 
In Eskdale, Crossbills were seen during the winter of 
1873-1874 at CarlesgiU (Westerkirk), { and Mr. A. Smith 
writes me from Langholm that he has not seen this species 
there for some years, but that he noticed them first in 
* Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, October 4th, 1878. 
t Op. cit.. May 12th, 1893. 
J Dumfries Courier, March 11th, 1874. 
