BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 17 1 
pests as the hairy caterpiUars of the laokey and brown- 
tailed moths, and other similar depredators of our woods 
and plantations."* 
Perhaps no species has benefited more than the Cuckoo 
by the law abolishing the use of the pole-trap ; placed as 
these traps often were on the open moor, they formed a 
lethal attraction to this innocent insectivorous bird 
The adult Cuckoos leave us in the last week of June, and 
one seen later than mid-July is a fa<;t worth noting."t 
Ihe birds of the year linger occasionaUy till the end of 
September ; but most have left by then for their winter- 
quarters which extend as far south as Natal 
The foUowing table is interesting because of the long 
sequence of observations by Messrs. Adamson, Brown, and 
Laidlaw m difiFerent parts of the county, whereby the 
average earliest arrival of the Cuckoo would appear to work 
out at the 23rd or 24th of April. But a regular sequence 
of observations from the httoral districts would be expected 
to show Its first arrival there a week earlier. 
Year. 
1842 
1854 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
First seen or 
heard. 
April 22nd 
April 24th 
May 1st 
April 30th 
April 23rd 
April 23rd 
April 22nd 
April 21st 
April 20th 
May 2nd 
April 16th 
April 14th 
April 16th 
April 12th 
District. 
Source of 
Information. 
Dumfries- 
Dumfries Courier, 
shire 
May 8th, 1842 
Do. 
Do., May 2nd, 
1854 
Do. 
Do., Feb. 2oth, 
1862 
Collin 
Mr. William 
(Dumfries) 
Adamson 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Remarks. 
* Science Progress, 1907, Vol. II., p. 276. 
t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1903, p. 194. 
