370 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
onomatopoeic name may be compared the French nickname 
of " Dix-huit " for this bird. ^ . 
Dr Archbald notices this species in his " Curiosities at 
Drumfriess," written about 1684 : " Green plovers returning 
every spring in abundance and staying aU summer ; a,nd 
therl a^e many local references to the Lapwing m the 
sListical AcLra of Scotland. It -'^J^'^-^^^Jl^ 
Hutton and Corrie in 1794 that it was " very numerous 
Lty years since. They are now, it is reckoned, not <>ne 
« hundred "t The New Statistical Account of Scotland, 
nublished some fifty years later, testifies to the abundance 
Ke speZ in oV county. Sir William J-dine wrote 
in 1842 " We have, at this moment, a wide range of land, 
Sice favourite haunts of the Pewit and Curlew, where few 
are now to be found ; and on one f arm,not exceeding a hundred 
ZeZ extent, forty or fifty pairs of Pewits might have 
been seen breeding yearly, whereas, at present, a single 
pr cSuld not be sU upon it. This, in a 
some satisfaction in the improvement which ^as token 
place, and the additional rental it may bring in ; yet tl^^e 
was L charm in these wild pastures, animated by their 
IculL rnhabitants, that cannot be replaced by any change 
J Iced artificiaUy upon them."t The alt-*" 
methods of agriculture may have mfluenced the habits o 
the Lapwing ; for thev now nest as commonly on the culti 
vated faira on the 'uncultivated moor. In recent years 
Ih? evXtion, if so it may be called, has been considerably 
ide] again, by the far greater amount of V^^^^^^^ 
rendered necessary by economic changes the condit ons 
of agriculture. It is sufficient to note t^at changes m 
condMons of the land's surface will not much affect the 
nesting of this species. It is something to be proud of 
that Dumfriesshire, by its Wild Birds Protection Act of 
June 1st 1896, wa; one of the first four Scottish counties 
* Sibbald's MS. Collections, p. 228. 
t Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. XIII.. p. 579. 
X Nat. Lib., 1842, Vol. XII., PP- 281, 282. 
