280 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
is " found here,"* and in 1843 he writes of it as a " winter 
bird of passage in the south of Scotland."! 
Mr. John Corrie in 1888 describes this species as a winter- 
visitor to Glencairn, and adds : " I am told some few birds 
remain throughout the breeding season, but I have been 
unable to authenticate this."J ^'Mabie Moss" writes in 1908: 
" The Wigeon has not yet been detected breeding in Dum- 
friesshire, but such an occurrence may take place any season 
now."§ The statements that it has already done so || lack 
confirmation ; and I am requested by Mr. Heatley Noble 
not to include it in my Hst as a nesting-species on his 
authority. 
I am informed by Sir Richard Graham that since 1903 
he has reared about thirty Wigeon annually at Netherby 
(Cumberland). They do next best to Teal, and in 1908 
they bred there full-winged, so that we may soon profit 
by his success. Eggs of this species which were sent to me 
on more than one occasion from Fasque (Kincardineshire) 
took between twenty-four and twenty-five days to hatch 
under a fowl ; the young birds were successfully reared, 
but disappeared as soon as they had attained their full 
powers of flight. 
In 1902, I shot two Wigeon, a mature female and 
immature male, from a Httle pond known as the Bobie 
Loch near Capenoch on September 23rd. This date is rather 
an early one with us, for although Wigeon occasionally 
appear towards the end of September, the more usual 
month is October, when the main body arrives, and the 
birds are then in large flocks on the Solway. In winter, 
they occur annually on the Cairn, and the lower reaches 
of the Nith and Annan ; but on the Esk they are scarce : 
on the lochs at Lochmaben, and on some of our larger 
* New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., p. 181. 
t Nat. Lib., 1843, Vol. XIV., p. 131. 
% Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, November 10th, 1888. 
§ Kirkcudbright Advertiser, May 5th, 1908. ^ 
II Brit. Birds (Mag.), Vol. II., p. 22 ; and Eggs Birds Eur., p. 564. 
