BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
days, according to the climatic conditions at the time. 
Sir WilHam Jardine in a MS. note in his personal copy of the 
Naturalist's Library, records its arrival at Jardine Hall in 
1836, so early as April 3rd. It frequents the sandy or 
gravelly shores of most of our lochs and rivers, and is met with 
along their tributaries, even in upland districts. On more 
than one occasion a nest has been found in the Capenoch 
gardens which extend along the banks of Scaur Water; 
and I am informed by Miss Winifred Young that in 1908 
and 1909 a pair nested in a herbaceous border in the garden 
of Blacket House, Eaglesfield, close to which the Kirtle 
flows. The nest, which is usuaUy weU concealed, contains 
four eggs, and incubation lasts twenty-three days. Mr. R. 
Armstrong informs me that in 1907 he found a clutch of 
five eggs by the Nith near ThornhiU (Morton). Late in July 
or early in August our birds leave their nesting-haunts, and, 
after a brief sojourn of a week or two on the coast, depart 
to their more southerly winter-quarters. 
In winter, this species is found in the Mediterranean basin, 
throughout Africa, India and Austraha, as far south as 
Tasmania. 
The accompanying photograph of the nest and eggs of 
the Common Sandpiper was obtained by Mr. D. Legard on 
the banks of Shinnel Water above Tynron Village. 
[THE WOOD-SANDPIPER. 
Totanus glareola (J. F. Gmehn). 
Writing of this species Howard Saunders says that along the 
west side of England " the bird is very rare, even in such 
congenial situations as the flat shores of the Solway."* 
H. A. Macpherson in his Vertebrate Fauna of Lakeland 
records two specimens obtained near EdenhaU, Cumberland, 
in August, 1867, and another beheved to have been seen by 
* Man. Brit. Birds, 1899, p. 607. 
