BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 346 
here and produced large bevies."* In his Natural History 
of Game Birds (1834) Sir William writes : " Thirty years 
since they were tolerably common and regular in their 
returns ; and even in the south of Scotland a few broods 
were occasionally to be found. ... In these same districts 
they are now very uncertain ; we have known of broods only 
twice, and occasionally have shot a straggler apparently on 
Its way to the south. They are extremely difficult to flush 
after the first time. The nest is made by the female, but, 
hke the partridges, the eggs are deposited almost on the bare 
ground ; these, also, unHke the uniform tint which we find 
prevaihng in those of the true partridges, are deeply blotched 
with oil-green, and, except in form, are somewhat similar 
to those of the snipe.^f In 1835 it was reported that 
Quail had been seen at LochmabenJ ; and Sir EmiHus 
Laurie of Maxwelton tells me he shot a Quail on Braco 
Farm (Glencairn), about 1838. 
Writing in 1842 Sir William Jardine describes the plumage of 
this species in his Naturalist's Library from a specimen shot 
at Jardine Hall in autumn,§ and in the Catalogue of the Birds 
contained in the collection of Sir William Jardine are recorded 
two specimens of ''C.dactylisomins rone from Murraythwaite 
and the other from Jardine Hall. On September 29th, 
1847, " there was found on the estate of Trailflat, in the 
Parish of Tinwald, a brood of Quails, a very unusual circum- 
stance indeed, in this part of the country. Our informant, 
who kiUed three, says that he has shot there for twenty years, 
and during that period never saw more than one at a time "|| 
John Wilson, of Billholm, shot a Quail on the Castle O'er 
property in Eskdalemuir in 1847.Tf On April 25th, 1848, 
four of these birds, " now very rare in this quarter," were 
* New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., pp. 180, 181. 
t Nat. Lib., 1834, Vol. IV., pp. 106, 107. 
t New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., p. 382. 
§ Nat. Lib., 1842, Vol. XII., p. 108. 
II Dumfries Courier, October 5th, 1847. 
II Op. cit., October 18th, 1853. 
