410 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
may be heard, if not seen, about any marshy land in the 
nesting season."* On the coast, and elsewhere throughout 
the county in all suitable locaHties, the Redshank is reported 
as present and increasing as a nesting-species. 
At its inland breeding-haunts it arrives in March or early 
April ; the nest is usually weU concealed in a tuft of rushes 
or long grass, and both birds take part in incubation, which 
lasts twenty-two days. The cares of domestic hfe ended, 
they and their progeny depart in July or August for the 
shore. Here, later, they become a positive nuisance to the 
wild-fowler, as they act as most vigilant sentries for the 
geese and other valuable fowl, flying off uttering their shrill 
note on the approach of danger. At this season they 
occasionally congregate into flocks, and Sir William Jardine 
states that he once at the end of August obtained thirteen 
at one shot out of a large flock on the Solway Firth.t On the 
shore they frequent the margins of salt and brackish water, 
where they find a plentiful supply of Crustacea and Mollusca. 
Though no diminution in the numbers of our Redshanks 
takes place, even in winter, it is possible that our locally- 
bred birds emigrate south, their places being filled by 
immigrants from farther north, which in turn, at the 
approach of spring, make way for those birds returning 
from more southerly winter-quarters. 
THE SPOTTED REDSHANK. 
Totanus fuscus (Linnaeus). 
Has occurred once. 
I only know of one record of the occurrence of the Spotted 
or Dusky Redshank in the county. This was a specimen 
shot by Captain W. J. Maxwell-Scott on Lantonside Farm 
* Tram. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, December 13th, 1901. 
t Nat. Lib., 1842, Vol. XII., p. 204. 
