BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 187 
preserve from Closeburn about 1866 which he believed to 
be of this species. Mr. T. A. Johnstone of Moffat states : 
in M "fonf^^ ^ ^^hich he found 
in May 1904, in the Kerr, a marsh a Httle to the south 
of the town^ which is that of this bird [i.e., Montagu's 
Harrier]. The egg is pale blue and has a rough 
texture. In size it is slightly less than that of a Pheasant. 
The nest consisted of a slight hollow in the ground, lined 
with dry rushes. This is the second instance of its nesting 
in this county. The other instance was mentioned in a 
paper, read before the Dumfries Naturalists' Society by 
fs8, ;k !T'!' ^'"^ ^ female, which was shot in June, 
1881 that had been sitting on eggs."* As a matter of 
tact this female was "caught on Cairnsmore of Fleet" (Kirk- 
cudbrightshire), but " had beyond doubt been sitting on 
eggs^ Ihe date was June 15th, 1881,"t not 1882 as given 
by Howard Saunders.J In reply to my enquiry, Mr. 
Johnstone most kindly replied : " I very much regret my 
inability to show you the Harrier's egg. I have been awaV 
trom home for a year, and a great many of my eggs, including 
fv.' f T u ^^'^ '^"'^^g ^•'^^nce. I may say 
tnat 1 had an opportunity of seeing the eggs of Montagu's 
and the Hen-Harrier together (I did not see any of the 
Marsh-Harrier's) in South Kensington Museum, and I 
certamly^ think that the egg I had, agreed most with 
Montagu s. I named it from a description with measure- 
ments contained in a handbook by Dr. R. B. Sharpe." 
It IS very unfortunate that so interesting an egg should 
have been lost, though the species for which it is claimed 
is the most unlikely of the three harriers to breed 
nere ,-^but had it proved to have been but the egg of the 
Uen-Hamer, so recent a date of that bird's nesting in our 
county would have been of great interest. When Sir 
Wiiham Jardme wrote in 1838, he was not aware of the 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, April 6th, 1907. 
t Trans. D. and a. Nat. Hist. Soc., December 18th, 1903 
I Man. Brit. Birds, 1899, p. 319. 
