BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 273 
that the Pintail had been pretty numerous there that 
season. In the severe winter of 1878-1879 several Pintail 
were observed, and one obtained locally was brought to 
WiUiam Hastings of Dumfries for preservation.* This species 
was more than usually plentiful in 1891-1892, and H. A. 
Macpherson mentionsf that he received on Christmas Eve, 
1891, a singularly handsome pair of Pintails from Mr w' 
Nichol, who shot them on the Solway, off the Dornock 
foreshore. In the winter of 1896-1897 Pintail were observed 
on the Solway, and a male is reported as seen on Auchencrieff 
Loch (Dumfries) on September 18th, 1903.$ 
Mr. Richard H. W. Leach, then tenant of the Moodlaw 
shootmgs (Eskdalemuir) wrote in 1905 to Richard BeU : 
" John Gartner shot a young female Pintail when out with 
me on October 19th, 1905." Mr. Wilham Wright informs 
me that m December, 1905, he saw a male on the lower 
Annan. It appeared to him to be wounded, and was sub- 
sequently shot and eaten. He had some years previously 
seen another bird of this species in the same locahty I 
hear from Mr. J. W. T. Corbett that he has twice seen 
Pmtail on a pond near Springkell (Kirkpatrick-Fleming) in 
winter ; he adds : " When in the water they appear to 
rise at times with a fairly jerky motion, uttering a whistHng 
sound." Pintail were reported as frequently seen on the 
Caerlaverock shores in the autumn of 1909, and a 
young male was shot on January 27th, and another on 
February 1st, 1910. 
I hear from Sir Richard Graham that since 1903 he has 
reared about thirty Pintail annuaUy at Netherby (Cumber- 
land), and that in 1908 some bred there full- winged. This 
fact will, no doubt, in the near future swell the numbers 
of our records. Indeed, during the winter of 1908-1909, 
whenthisspecies"was rather frequent in the Solway waters, "§ 
* Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasg., 1880, Vol. IV., p. 320. 
t Fauna of Lakeland, 1892, p. 278. 
t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1904, p. 212. 
§ Op. cit., 1909, p. 184. 
