BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
by the same man, and was also acquired by WiUiam Hastmgs. 
Others were seen at the time and another was shot and lost. 
The late H. A. Macpherson wrote to Mr. R. Service that 
an adult in red plumage was shot on July 24th, 1890 at 
the mouth of the Esk ; and this record is here mcluded, 
although outside the confines of our boundary, to draw 
attention to the remarkably late date of the occurrence of 
this individual in the Solway area. 
The Black-tailed Godwit visits chiefly the southern and 
south-eastern coasts of England on its autumnal passage, 
and from April to May on its return, but at no time is it 
numerous : it is rarely met with further north, and still more 
rarely on the west of Great Britain, though fairly frequent 
in Ireland. As has been stated, it bred formerly in the fens 
of East Angha. Its present nesting-haunts are m north-west 
and northern Europe as far as lat. 65° north, and m parts 
of central Europe and western Siberia. Over the rest of 
Europe it is found on passage, in winter in north-east Africa, 
the countries of the Mediterranean, and north-west India. 
THE COMMON CURLEW. 
Numenius arquata (Linnaeus). 
Local name— Whaup. 
For what's in the lilt o' the laverock* to touch ocht mair than the ear ! 
?he meHe'sTo^ craikf in the tangled brake can start nae memon^ dear. 
And even the sang o' the MavisJ but waukens a love -dream tame 
5? the whaup^^ wfld cry on the breeze blawn by, hke a wanderer s word 
frae hame." Sio^^wr Reid.-" The WMup^ 
A resident; common on the shore in autumn and winter, nesting 
abundantly inland. 
The poet is right ; wherever I am, and whatever time of 
the year I hear it, the " whaup's wild cry " brings back to 
* Skylark. 
1 Blackbird's low chatter. 
X Song-Thrush. 
