BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 371 
tT'^'^f f ^""i Aberdeenshire being 
the others) to prohibit the taking of Lapwing's esss after 
Aprd 15th,* and though it is doubtful ifTspecf s fs 1 
plentiful as ,t was fifty or sixty years ago, it is stiU numerous 
In February, or even January, great numbers of Lapwings 
leave the county ; and these are beheved to be goC fo 
more northerly breeding-places, since our nesttog bir£ 
l?*'^^- "Pl-d summer-haunts befofe tie 
latter days of February. Mr. R. Service records that on 
the mornmg of February Hth, 1909, fifteen to eighteen 
Mtol'T'l"'"'''^ r ^'^^ -''i-- " 
restlessness , m a few mmutes the whole flock were on 
ttevTd ^I"""^*^ °f "movements that 
they had not previously shown. By-and-by in a very 
inTs than ^' ^'.^^ '^^'^'^ ™' oi S 
in 1837, Sir WiUiam Jardme, writing from Jardine HaU on 
c^mr-'^'To: 'd t '^'T' ^^^^y- "P-sweeps ar: 
Lto flo t 1' ^^^u""^ °* "^"^y- ^P^^g^ begin to gather 
holms bordermg our larger rivers, where they may also 
be seen m winter should the weather be mUd for any 
length of time. In October and November they " crowd 
down to the littoral parishes in extraordinary numbeTs 
and many leave at this season for more southerty ' 
The numbers of birds in these great autumnal miLtion^ 
flocks, ebb and flow as the birds daily decrease or iWse 
with departures or arrivals as time goes on; tiU by 
r^S^tm tT - --'-ble 'one^'that 
remams till the general immigration in February. During 
M Zt rr*"" days in October' 190" 
rd later . ^"P* Nithsdale 
*nd later it was estimated that on a seven-acre field near 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, May 29th, 1896. 
t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1909, pp. 210, 211. 
AA 2 
