242 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
head to or from their winter-quarters on the Solway, and 
frequently occur on the lochs at Lochmaben. I remember 
on April 25th, 1906, a flock of twenty passed over 
Capenoch very high, making a great " hoiJ^ing, which 
was answered by the Pheasant cocks ; and on October 
12th 1905, I was awakened at 2 a.m. by the calls of geese 
passing overhead. These dates show approximately the 
autumn and spring-migrations of these birds, which arrive 
on the Solway in October, and depart agam m Apnl or 
early May ; though in 1908 " grey geese were stiU on 
the Caerlaverock foreshore so late as May 20th; and on 
June 19th three were seen near Beattock flying north. 
The Grey Lag-Goose nests in the Outer Hebrides and north- 
west of Scotland, and is locally distributed in summer m 
parts of northern and central Europe ; in winter it migrates 
as far south as the countries bordering the Mediterranean. 
THE WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 
Anser albifrons (ScopoU). 
A winter-visitor. 
This is by far the least frequent of the different species of 
grey geese found in the Solway waters,* and has seldom 
been noticed in larger parties than a dozen 
Sir WiUiam Jardine wrote in 1843 that he had once 
or twice faUen in with a small flock during winter m our 
own vicinity. The last we saw was raised from a rushy 
upland sheep-pasture, where after a ™'4Sv 
aUghted, and we procured the specimen, f 
24th 1845, he wrote from Jardine Hall to his friend 
P j'. Selby, as follows : " I shot since I came down here 
a couple of white fronted geese M.F., [i.e., male and 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, February 8th, 1897. 
t Nat. Lib., 1843, Vol. XIV., pp. 75, 76. 
