448 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
Mr. James Barnes of Carlisle. On the 21st, one (now in the 
collection of Mr. R. Service) was shot by Mr. Irving Murray 
at Priestside (Cummertrees)* ; and a specimen obtained on 
the same date at Glen JE (Tinwald), some twelve miles inland, 
was sent to William Hastings for preservation. f These 
birds were mostly in an emaciated and exhausted condition. 
Mr. W. Nichol writes me that on June 10th, 1908, he saw an 
adult male Buff on' s Skua off the Dumfriesshire coast. As 
already pointed out, the month of June is an unusual date 
for the occurrence of this species in Great Britain. 
Buffon's Skua is a circumpolar breeding bird, migrating 
as far south in winter as the Mediterranean ; and in America 
reaching to the coast of Mexico on the west, and the mouth 
of the Delaware River on the east. It is less regular than 
the Arctic Skua in its visits to the British Isles, but in 
some autumns it is comparatively common and occasionally 
even abundant on the north-east coast of England ; while 
southward it is rarer, and on the west coast is seldom met 
with. 
THE RAZORBILL. Alca torda, Linnaeus. 
A common visitant to the Solway. 
Breeding as it does no farther off the Dumfriesshire coast 
than Balcarry and the Ross (Kirkcudbrightshire), the 
Razorbill is an every-day visitant to the estuaries of the 
Esk, Annan, and Nith in the spring, summer and early 
autumn months. At these seasons it may be said to 
be never out of sight, more especially so after the young 
take to the sea. It leaves the immediate vicinity of the 
Dumfriesshire shore usually in September and thereafter 
may be found far down the channel, or on the open sea, 
where it remains throughout the winter and early spring. 
Razorbills are sometimes found washed up on our shores 
* Dumfries Courier and Herald, November 10th, 1891. 
f Loc. cit. 
