BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
was shot in June, 1867, on the RockhaU estate, a few miles 
from Dumfries, and is now in the possession of WiUiam 
Hastmgs, bird-stuffer, in that town."* Mr. R, Service 
has pointed out that the correct date is 1866,t and he notes 
m his diary that WiUiam Hastings told him that it was 
the only specimen he had ever had to stuff. Sir Alexander 
Gnerson, Bart., of RockhaU, wrote me in 1908 : " I have 
not the specimen of the bird you refer to, nor do I know what 
became of it." 
The Hobby is a rare summer-visitor to England, and stUl 
more so to Scotland and Ireland. It breeds throughout 
temperate Europe and Asia ; and winters in China, India 
and Africa as far south as Cape Colony. 
THE MERLIN. Falco msalon, TunstaU. 
Local names— Wee Hawk ; Wee Blue Hawk. 
^nte^* moorland districU ; more widely distributed in 
Sir WiUiam Jardine stated in 1838 that the mountain- 
ranges on the Scottish border contained in the season many 
breeding-places of the MerUn, and that they were "as 
regularly returned to as those of the Peregrine."} Four 
specimens recorded as obtained at Jardine HaU are noted 
m the catalogue of the birds contained in his collection 
Dr. Gnerson in 1834 (mM 16) records in his diary that he 
bought a young MerUn from a boy for 2id., and kept it 
m a cage with two rabbits and a Kestrel ! A subsequent 
entry m his diary in 1862 gives the information that Thomas 
* Birds of West Scotland, 1871, p. 31. 
t Trans. D. and G. Nat, Hist. Soc, December 18th, 1903. 
t Nat. Lib., 1838, Vol. IX., p. 131. 
