BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 291 
more properly be regarded as Kirkcudbrightshire birds. 
Mr R. Service writes : " On the 5th November, 1897 I 
had the pleasure of handUng a fine old drake of the Long- 
tailed Duck in the finest feather. It had been shot the same 
morning near Kingholm on the Nith. Of late years this 
duck has shown a tendency to put in a more frequent 
appearance on the Solway Firth, but here, as elsewhere, it is 
extremely unusual to find one on inland waters This 
specimen was found some four or five miles from the sea "* 
±i. A. Macpherson records another specimen obtained in the 
same season, as follows: "A small but adult female of 
Hardda glacmlis was sent me as an unknown bird from 
Priestside, near Annan, on 14th December, 1897 The 
specimen is chiefly remarkable for having a pure white neck 
more resembhng that of a male Harelda than the neck of 
the average female."t Mr. Service records a female which 
came into his possession in the winter of 1 899-1 900t • and 
an immature female shot by T. Peal on October 31st, 1903 ? 
it IS beheved in Dumfriesshire waters, is in Tullie House 
Museum CarUsle, as is also an adult male killed near 
Otretna by a fisherman on November 2nd, 1909 This latter 
IS m almost fuU winter-dress, a remarkably early date for 
this stage of plumage and in which this bird is very 
rarely seen in the Solway. Writing of the status of this 
'MvvK-'°v,*^? ^"^"^^y says in 1905: 
Within the last ten or twelve years httle parties have 
been finding their way round the Mull of GaUoway into our 
waters, and a few have even got inside Southerness."|| 
From the foregoing it will be seen that the Long-tailed 
uuck, once a very rare visitor to our shores, has, of com- 
paratively recent years, become far less intermittent in 
its visits. 
* Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1898, p. 52. 
t Loc. cit. 
t Op. cit., 1900, pp. 49, 50. 
§ Tullie House Museum Registers. 
II Trans. D. and O. Nat. Hist. Soc, April 20th, 1905. 
V a 
