458 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
in 1862 that a " Small Northern Diver " was obtained 
that season at Cowhill, and he refers to this as " the 
same bird as the one I got from Mr. Broadfoot at 
Glencairn, and which was got in a loch near Maxwel- 
ton."* About 1885 a Red-throated Diver was shot 
at the Far Loch, Capenoch (Keir), and is now in my 
possession. " In July, 1886, a small but full-dressed 
male . . . was found dead by a platelayer near Gretna, 
having struck the wires full upon the lower neck."t A 
Red-throated Diver was seen on May 30th, 1901, at Loch 
Skene, J which is fully thirty miles inland ; and Miss Wallace 
informs me that a bird, presumably of this species, was seen 
on one of the Lochmaben Lochs on February 13th, 1906. 
Another example was found dead on the hills near Castle 
O'er (Langholm) by a shepherd in November, 1908. 
The above records refer to the occurrence of the species 
inland ; but on the coast, as has already been stated, it 
is far more common. Mr. W. Nichol writes me that this 
species was remarkably numerous on the Solway in April 
and May, 1905, and that one day he counted twenty-one 
between the Solway Lightship and Southerness ; while in 
1906 birds were seen on the Scottish side of the Solway on 
April 11th and 30th.§ 
This species nests in Scotland in variable numbers from 
Arran northwards, and in the Hebrides, Orkneys and 
Shetland Isles. In Ireland a few pairs may still escape 
the persecution of the egg-collector, and outside the British 
Isles the Red-throated Diver has a circumpolar distribution 
during the nesting-season. In winter, it is a common 
visitant around the coasts of Great Britain, immature 
examples preponderating, and at this season the species 
has a more extended range than the Black-throated 
Diver. 
* Grierson's MS. Notes, October 17th, 1862. 
t Fauna of Lakeland, 1892, p. 450. 
% Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1901, p. 201. 
§ Tullie House Museum Registers. 
