BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 115 
About 1850, Magpies appear to have been still very 
numerous ; but with the increasing preservation of game 
their numbers correspondingly decreased. Mr. R. Service 
tells me that he saw quantities near Lockerbie in 1863, but 
Thomas Aird recorded in the following year that they were 
already getting scarce round Dumfries,* and the Rev. 
Dr. R. W. Weir writing of the birds of that parish in 1876 
says : " The common Magpie, one of our most beautiful 
birds, once so common here, has now all but disappeared, 
thanks to the zeal of the vultures caUed game-keepers, "f 
My father well recollected, as a most unusual sight in 
1872, seeing a flock of thirteen at Durisdeer. 
The species escapes annihilation in Upper Nithsdale more 
easily than elsewhere. Mr. James Laurie, gamekeeper, 
informs me that in 1899 he killed no less than three 
hundred Magpies on his beat near Kirkconnel. These were 
all bred in the district in the natural birch -coverts, and he 
pulled down all the old nests after killing the birds. This 
must have been an isolated colony where they had been 
allowed to increase for many years. Since 1900, nests 
have been recorded from Kirkconnel, Morton, Closeburn. 
Keir, St. Mungo, Kirkmahoe and Canonbie, as well as from 
the Httoral parishes of the county, where the bird would 
seem to be slightly on the increase. With adequate 
protection there is no reason why it should not once more 
become generally distributed throughout the county. 
As an inveterate egg-stealer the Magpie bears a deservedly 
bad character, and Mr. Tom Brown narrates that he once 
saw a pair attack and kill a hare. J Whatever its faults 
may be, it is always to be regretted when any bird becomes 
exterminated. Keeping undesirables in check requires 
different procedure, and is undoubtedly essential in some 
cases for the welfare of other species of our avifauna. 
Sir William Jardine records a pair of Magpies, " entirely 
* Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, December 6th, 1864. 
t Dumfries Courier, September 12th, 1876. 
t Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, December 4th, 1885. 
I 2 
