404 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
detaUs of the capture of the "Buzzard-hawk" are evergreen 
in the memory of the keeper who trapped it, but he can 
recollect nothing as regards the smaller bird, which may or 
may not have been a local specimen. 
This species has never been known to nest in the county, 
and H. A. Macpherson wrote in 1892 : " The Ruff has never 
been obtained in Lakeland during the breeding season. Mr. 
C. M. Adamson assured me that he once received from James 
Cooper a clutch of the eggs of this species, which had been 
taken in the neighbourhood of the EngHsh Solway. Mr. 
Adamson subsequently presented these eggs to Mr. 
Hancock." * 
On its autumn and spring-migrations the RufE is found 
throughout Europe and Asia except in the extreme north. 
Its winter-quarters extend from the southern shores of the 
Mediterranean to Cape Colony, and to India, Burmah, China 
and Japan, in Asia. It breeds in Scandinavia, and parts 
of Russia, Siberia and central Europe, and a few pairs, 
stringently protected, still sometimes nest in East Angha. 
There in days when drainage had not destroyed so many 
favourite haunts, and before the avidity of the egg-collector 
had been aroused by the growing rarity of the species the 
Ruff and Reeve were among the characteristic birds of the 
fens and broads. 
THE COMMON SANDPIPER. 
Totanus hypoleucus (Linnaeus). 
Local names— Summer-Snipe ; Sand-Whaup ; Curwillet; 
KiTTIE-NEEDIE *, SaND-TRIPPER. 
A common summer-visitant to aU .uitablc lake, and rivers throughout the 
county. 
The Common Sandpiper arrives at its nesting-haunts about 
the third week of April, its appearance varymg by a tew 
* Fauna of Lakeland, 1892, p. 390. 
