BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 465 
me that he did not know of their breeding in the Solway 
area till he was told by the late Sir Edward Newton that he 
and his two daughters had seen a brood on Carhnwark Loch 
(Kirkcudbrightshire) in 1886. Under these circumstances the 
following extract from a letter from Mrs. Pollock is most 
interesting : " Spring 1866, Water Grebe. Nest built of 
rushes in some red willows in Dalswinton Loch. The bird 
made a loose lid or roof, and on going olff she always pushed 
it over the nest so as to resemble a large loose sod floating 
among the red willows, so you might step on it and never 
know it was a nest. I have taken the lid off, and removed an 
egg and replaced the roof. James Robson found the nest." 
After a perusal of this letter Mr. Service writes me : " This 
is in all hkehhood the oldest record of the species nesting 
hereaway, unless indeed it formerly (say before 1870) nested, 
and then for twenty years or more disappeared in nesting 
time ; or the Dalswinton case may have been sporadic." 
The shy and unobtrusive habits of the Little Grebe 
may account for the lack of early records of its breeding in 
the county ; certainly its nest might easily be overlooked. 
In a letter dated April 13th, 1881, Mr. Tom Brown informed 
Mr. R. Service of three small divers, reddish-brown about 
the neck, observed in a loch near Drumcuil (Durisdeer). 
Writing in 1888 of the birds of Glencairn, Mr. John Corrie 
describes the species as " seen on the Cairn in the winter of 
1885. Subsequently found breeding on a very small loch."* 
In a letter to me in 1908 he kindly supplements this observa- 
tion by stating that it was in 1887 that he first found the 
nest, and that the species now breeds on several lochs in 
the parish. Nowadays reports from many localities in 
Nithsdale and Annandale show that the Little Grebe 
nests regularly, and is as a breeding-species increasing ; 
but I have no reports of it as such from Eskdale. 
The Little Grebe arrives at its nesting-haunts late in 
March or early in April, and its presence is often detected 
by its " curious triUing chatter." The nest, which is a raft 
* Trans. D. and Q. Nat. Hist. Soc, November 10th, 1888. 
GG 
