178 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
hood (i.e., circa 1850), says : " I have now reason to beUeve 
that the Short-eared Owl, generally described as an 
autumn and winter visitor only to this country, occasionaUy 
nested amongst the tall heather in Lochar Moss."* A 
specimen is recorded as shot in the Dumfries district on 
January 30th, 1858.t ^ . . 
Thomas Maxwell in 1862 spoke of the species as the 
rarest of the four owls in Nithsdale.J 
Richard BeU of Castle O'er states that he knew of this 
species breeding in Upper Eskdale in 1864,§ but it was not 
until some ten years later that they became plentiful; 
while H A. Macpherson records in 1892, " Many years ago 
I captured a newly fledged Short-eared Owl in Dumfries- 
shire on Lochar Moss." || 
A plague of voles (Microtus agrestis) in 1874-1876 was 
devastating the upland pastures in Upper Eskdale and a 
big movement of Short-eared Owls to the infected districts 
took place. This vole-plague, according to Sir Walter 
ElUot's report, was felt most severely as regards Dumfries- 
shire, in the parishes of Tynron, Penpont and Durisdeer, 
in Nithsdale ; and in Eskdalemuir, on the border of Rox- 
burghshire.^ The Short-eared Owls might be said to have 
accompanied the voles, and when the plague died out m 
1877 the birds disappeared. 
In 1889 a recurrence of this plague was beginning. In 
that year voles were noticed in vast numbers on the low- 
lying pastures in Closeburn parish, and they continued there 
till 1891, when they disappeared ; doubtless to the higher 
ground ' From 1891-1893 there raged such a devastatmg 
plague on the upland pastures as will long be 
remembered. It was estimated that in Eskdalemuir and 
* Dumfries Standard, January 18th, 1893. 
t Naturalist, 1858, Vol. VIII., p. 117. 
X Grierson's MS. Notes, October 17th, 1862. 
§ My Strange Pets, p. 256. 
II Fauna of Lakeland, 1892, p. 174. 
^ Mammals of Great Britain, Vol. II., p. 270. 
