220 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
or twenty years past, if indeed then," and there is no reason 
to suppose that Dumfriesshire was more favoured. 
An Osprey was seen at Kirkmichael in September, 1878, 
and the incident is thus described : " As some sportsmen 
were sitting at lunch on the banks of the M this fine bird 
suddenly appeared, hovering above a trout-pool in front of 
them. Each gentleman sprang to his gun, but before the 
nearest was reached, the Osprey, we are glad to add, had 
noticed its would-be destroyers, and was half a mile off. 
I am able to give, through the courtesy of Mr. A. H. 
Evans, the following records of the appearance of an 
Osprey at Loch Skene in 1881. Mr. Robert Mathieson 
states : " The Osprey made a short visit this spring (1881) 
to St. Mary's Loch and Loch Skene, where formerly it used 
to build on a rocky island which rises a few feet above 
the waters of this desolate and lonely mountain tarn, f 
Mr. Evans informs me that Dr. J. Hardy (late) of Oldcam- 
bus, Berwickshire, sent him a note on September 26th, 
1881, to the effect that A. Brotherston had an Osprey to 
stuff from CoUege Water (Northumberland) ; and Dr. Hardy 
added that the Osprey visited Loch Skene that spring, as 
if intending to breed on an islet frequented of old by these 
birds ; but that it was frightened by attempts to shoot it ; 
as was noticed in the Scotsman^ Mr. J. Bartholomew, 
to whom I wrote, sent me the following letter from Mr 
Alexander Sim : " I saw a single bird at St. Mary s Loch 
in the spring of 1881 ; it went away in Loch Skene direc- 
tion, and I heard from the shepherd Willie Brown that he 
had seen a strange bird at Loch Skene, and that it remained 
there for two days. By his description it was an Osprey. 
This was in the end of April or beginning of May, 
1881, and was possibly the bird which I saw at St. Mary s 
Loch, as it was a day or two after I saw it that the shepherd 
noticed it at Loch Skene. That a single Osprey was there 
for a day or two in the spring of 1881 I have no doubt. 
* Dumfries Courier, March 25th, 1879. 
t Hist. Berwick Nat. Club., Vol. IX., 1881, p. 489. 
