BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 383 
New World it is found at this season as far south as the 
Bermudas and Guatemala. 
THE WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticula, Unnssns. 
" Oft at this season, near an oozy spring, 
O'erhung by alder boughs, the woodcock haunts ; 
Sure harbinger, when thus so early come. 
Of early winter tedious and severe." 
James Grahame, ''British Oeorgics " (November). 
A winter-visitant, but annuaUy increasing as a breeding-species. 
As long ago as 1678 Francis WiUughby wrote of the Wood- 
cock : Some straglers by some accident left behind when 
their feUows depart remain also in England aU summer, and 
breed here."* and though possibly some stragglers have 
always bred with us undetected, it is only of late years 
that the Woodcock has become so plentiful as a breeding- 
species in Dumfriesshire. This decision is arrived at, 
not only from my own observations, but from the 
numerous reports which I have received from all parts of 
the county. 
The earliest record of the actual discovery of a nest locally, 
of which I am aware, is in 1848, when on April 8th one was 
found about a mile from Langholm Lodge, by Walter Bell 
and others, whUe cutting wood.f But in this connection 
the place-name, Woodcockair (Annan) is especially interest- 
ing. In a charter dated March 3rd, 1334, appointing John 
de la Forest, baihff of the Park of " Wodecok Heyr," the 
name is thus spelt. The Rev. James B. Johnstone (author 
of Place-names of Scotland," 1903), who has kindly written 
to me on the subject, is of the opinion that the termination 
" Heyr " is equivalent to the word " aire," the older form 
* The Ornithology of F. Willughhy, 1678, p. 290. 
t Dumfries Courier, April 25th, 1848. 
