BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 359 
in numbers locally. Their nesting-haunts are often annually 
resorted to, the birds arriving at them about mid-April ; 
departing again in August or September. In winter they 
congregate on our larger lakes, and only in severe weather 
are they to be found on our estuaries. They are subject 
to great variation in numbers, probably caused by emi- 
grations and immigrations to and from other districts. Some 
waters in late autumn may hold them for a week in large 
parties, and then again none will be seen for some months. 
Sir William Jardine writing in 1832 says this species 
" breeds on Perch-Hall Loch, but leaves on the approach 
of winter."* In 1835 Coots were recorded as "abundant 
in the Castle and Hightae lochs,"t (Lochmaben) and 
it is interesting to know that nowadays, so Miss Wallace 
informs me, they are seen there numerously in winter. 
Coots being very pugnacious in spring, it is probable that this 
combativeness causes the break-up of the preceding winter- 
parties, and so the larger lakes remain tenanted by but a 
few pairs of birds where scores were seen the previous autumn, 
the majority having been driven off to find nesting-places on 
smaller sheets of water. In courting-time pairs go for long 
walks over the grass and ploughed fields. 
Mr. R. Armstrong informs me that he has personally seen 
Coots destroying the eggs of the Little Grebe. 
In severe winters, such as 1878-1879, this species, like 
other waterfowl, is known to suffer severely. 
[THE CRANE. Grus communis, Bechstein. 
H. A. Macpherson, in a letter to Mr. R. Service, writes : " I can 
find no evidence of Cranes having ever bred in Scotland; but 
that the bird was well known in Scotland and much sought 
after in the sixteenth century is indisputable . . . 1503. Item, 
* New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., p. 181. 
t Op. cit.. Vol. IV., p. 382. 
