346 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
flushed in a nursery in the vicinity of Dumfries * In 
February, 1849, it was reported that Mr. Wilson, of Hunter 
House Lodge (Tinwald) had captured a Quail " about three 
months ago " and had kept it in a cage ever since.t One 
was shot on October 15th, 1853, on Graham Bell's property 
of Castle O'er (Eskdale) by John Wilson of BiUholm, who 
had only previously seen one other in the district 4 
W. S. T[horburn] wrote in 1857: 'M have lately 
been informed by a gentleman who is the proprietor of a 
portion of Lochar Moss that fifteen years ago (say 1842) 
not an individual of this species was to be seen on the Moss 
Since that time two or three pairs arrived yearly, until 
recently he has observed that the number of immigrants 
has increased. From 1853 to 1856 the piping of the Quail 
was regularly heard, and several individuals were seen, and 
in the summer of 1854, in cutting a field of grass, a mower 
came upon a nest containing about a dozen eggs, with the 
bird crouching close to the ground," and the account goes 
on to say that she " eventually hatched her brood, a numerous 
family."§ The same writer later states : ''I have again 
the pleasure of informing your readers that this year (1857) 
another brood has been seen. . . . If undisturbed they 
are sure to return, and I trust we may be able to class them 
among our common species."ll A Dumfries correspondent 
of the Naturalist in January, 1854, writes of the Quail as 
seen lately as a winter visitor ; very rare."ll 
Mr R Armstrong informs me that he has in his possession 
an egg given him by Dr. Grierson, which is marked on the 
sheU ''Blackwood, 1864," and which in all probabihty 
was taken in Keir parish. Mr. John Dalzell writes me in 
1908 that the first Quail he saw was one shot by his lather 
* Dumfries Courier, May 2nd, 1848. 
t Op. cit., February 6th, 1849. 
X Op. cit., October 18th, 1853. 
§ Notes for Naturalists, p. 70. 
11 Op. cit., p. 107. 
«fT Naturalist, 1854, Vol. IV., p. 51 
