BIOLOGY LIBRARY if) A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE ORKNEY ISLANDS BY T. E. BUCKLEY, B.A., F.Z.S. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS* UNION, ETC. AND J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS* UNION, ETC. EDINBUHGH : Printed by T. and A CONSTABLE, FOR DAVID DOUGLAS. LONDON ..... SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON KENT AND CO., LTD. CAMBRIDGE .... MACMILLAN AND BOWES. GLASGOW . . JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE ORKNEY ISLANDS" T H OM ?S E .V ^''iJ B K-L E Y AND J. A. HARVIJE-BROWN DAVID EDINBURGH: MDCCCXCI .-'*?> \ /Sr LIBRARY tOLdGY IJSRARf PREFACE THE plan of the present volume is built much on the same lines as those of the two preceding ones, though we have made one or two alterations which appeared to us, if not necessary, at least an improvement on these. Thus, instead of giving a list of all the species included in the British Fauna, we have only given those about which we had any information, by these means doing away with a good deal of unnecessary matter. We have been aided in our work by many able and willing correspondents, who have spared themselves no trouble in answering our numerous inquiries, besides helping us in any other way in their power. On the Mainland we are indebted to Mr. Cursiter for access to his valuable library, and for the trouble he has taken in looking up and pointing out to us any passages that he thought would be of use in furthering our work. Mr. Cursiter is a well-known authority on Orcadian and Shetland antiquities, which are his special study, and croo VI PREFACE. in addition to his almost perfect library of the literature of the two groups of islands, possesses a very fine and extensive collection of their antiquities, commencing from the old stone age down to more modern times. To Mr. T. W. Ranken we are indebted for many notes not only his own, but those that were made by his father, all of which are of great interest. Mr. Ranken's brother-in-law being the proprietor of Eday, has enabled him to give us all available information concerning that island. From Mr. Irvine-Fortescue we 'have received a large number of most interesting and valuable notes, made out with the greatest care, and evidently written by a man who is both a sportsman as well as a naturalist, and who is not in the least likely to lead one astray by any rash statement. Mr. E. S. Cameron, besides giving us the use of all the information he had collected from various quarters, kindly drove us to many places on the Mainland, thus enabling us to visit with ease what it would otherwise have cost us much trouble and inconvenience to do. It is to his care and protection that the birds have been allowed to increase and multiply on Eynhallow in the way they have done. Mr. Watt, the owner of Skaill House one of the oldest and most interesting mansions PREFACE. vii in the Orkneys also possesses the loch of Skaill, which, to an ornithologist, is one of the most attractive in the Mainland, and he has sent us many notices of waterfowl from thence ; we think there is more still to be done there and in that neighbourhood, Mr. Watt himself being more an antiquarian than ornithologist. We have also corresponded with Mr. Leask of Boardhouse and Mr. Cowan of Kirk wall, the latter gentleman being quite an authority on fish. Sanday has perhaps given more rare birds to the Orkneys than almost all the other islands put together ; and the late Mr. Strang's place of Lopness has been ably filled in all senses of the word by his successor Mr. Harvey. The latter gentleman has added the Nutcracker to the faunal roll, and he has been good enough to send us an almost complete list of the birds of Sanday as well as a very interesting description of the island itself. Hearing that we were purposing to bring out a volume on Orkney birds, Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie was good enough at once to send us a note of the Pectoral Sandpiper procured by him in Westray, and he has since by corre- spondence given us a great deal of information on birds both from that island and Papa Westray. Through the kindness of Mr. Moodie-Heddle, the viii PREFACE. proprietor of Hoy, we were enabled to make, ourselves, an almost complete survey of that island, which includes North and South Walls, and we are extremely indebted to him for his hospitality and aid. His own perfect knowledge of the island helped us to visit, without loss of time, the breeding-places of the more interesting birds, and the knowledge thus obtained was largely supple- mented by notes kept for many years both by his father and himself, and since then by continued correspondence. Indeed we think better results might have been arrived at had Mr. Moodie-Heddle and Mr. Irvine-Fortescue taken the whole subject in hand themselves. The schedules we have received from the Pentland Skerries show that Mr. Gilmour, the assistant light- keeper, entered into that work con amore ; and the number of interesting facts brought to light by the Migration Reports can best be realised by a reference to the chapter on those islands. We here tender him our best thanks for the intelligent interest he has displayed all through. Wherever we have gone among the islands, we have always met with the greatest kindness, and our numerous inquiries have been answered to the best of the giver's ability ; and we here wish to place on record PREFACE. ix the courteous help and kindness we have received from one and all. Almost at the last moment we obtained a number of most interesting notes from Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie, who was shooting during the autumn and winter of 1889, in Westray and Papa Westray. These, together with the results of a birds'-nesting trip in May 1890, will be found either incorporated into the body of the work or in the Appendix ; and we are much obliged to Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie for sending us, unsolicited, so much valuable matter. We are again indebted to Mr. J. G. Millais for the use of three of his beautiful sketches of Orkney locali- ties, and we think the reproductions are worthy of all praise. The picture of the view of Loch Stenness should have special interest to the ornithologist, as it and Harray are the only localities where the Wild Swan is known or recorded to have bred in the British Isles. For our title-page we have to thank Mr. Edwin Alexander. Many of our illustrations have been copied from photographs taken by Mr. Norrie, sometimes under cir- cumstances the reverse of comfortable or convenient ; X PREFACE. and we think that the reproductions, done by Messrs. Annan, have ably seconded Mr. Nome's efforts. The view of Papa Westray was done by Mr. E. Caldwell, who came north specially to make this sketch. Apart from the great interest attaching to the locality, there is a fresh look about the picture which must specially attract those who are fond of the sea and cliff scenery. For uniformity's sake we have used the spelling of the Orkney names of places as given in Bartholomew's Reduced Ordnance Map, scale two miles to an inch, and also because this map is of most use to the general reader. An Orcadian gentleman pointed out to us that many of these names have been incorrectly spelt, but to have altered them might have led to confusion, and have been of little practical utility. We think every locality of consequence mentioned in the text will be found in the accompanying map. No Faunal List can ever be absolutely perfect. Man is ever changing the surface of the earth in some way or other, and thus, by altering the conditions under which animals exist, the animals themselves must also vary in either the extension or restriction of their range. Since the Migration Committee took the lighthouses in hand, the returns, from these places show these facts as PREFACE. xi to birds in a very marked degree. This must necessarily soon put any work on Natural History more or less out of date ; it is our duty to make our book as perfect as possible up to the date of publication. We trust this will be found a sufficient excuse for adding an Appendix to contain fresh information, or information we may have overlooked in the first instance. In several cases we may have erred in giving all the notes as we received them from our correspondents. But these notes were given us in good faith ; and where we think there has been any likelihood of mistakes on their part we have pointed them out, so that our readers can form their own judgment ; and we trust our cor- respondents will take these remarks in good part, and not think we are criticising them in any supercilious spirit. We are afraid our list of Fish is not altogether satis- factory. We applied to several people to aid us, but the information thus gleaned is very meagre. At one time we contemplated leaving out the whole subject, but on second thoughts we considered it better to put together what notes we could get, and point out here to succeeding Naturalists where fresh fields for their enterprise lay. It is a subject which, though at present taken up by few, Xll PREFACE. would, we should say, well repay patient investigation. In other branches of Natural History, outside our own particular ones, such as Crustacea, Botany, etc., we are given to understand there are several workers through the islands, and had Messrs. Baikie and Heddle carried on their proposed work, no doubt all these subjects would have been included therein. In that case, from their insular position, the fauna of Orkney, both vertebrate and invertebrate, would have been very complete. It would be well if others would take up the subject where we here leave it, and add a second, and no less inter- esting, volume. T. E. BUCKLEY. J. A. HAEVIE-BKOWK March 2, 1891. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY, . . . xvii-xxiv GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE OKKNEY ISLANDS AND DESCRIPTION OF THEIR PHYSICAL FEATURES, 1-8 DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTH ISLES, . . 9-22 NORTH RONALDSAY, . .. ". .. . . - . 9 SANDAY, .... . 10 STRONSAY, ....... 13 ED AY, . . 15 NORTH FARA, . ... .17 WESTRAY, . . . . . . . 17 PAPA WESTRAY, . . .19 HOLM OF PAPA WESTRAY, . . ... . 21 DESCRIPTION OF THE WESTERN ISLES, . . 23-28 ROUSAY, . . . . 23 VlERA, . . . ... . 25 EYNHALLOW, . . . , . . . 26 GAIRSAY, ... . 27 EGILSAY, . . . . ., ' . , 27 62 XIV CONTENTS. PAGE DESCRIPTION OF THE MAINLAND, SHAPINSAY AND COPINSAY, . . 29-34 THE MAINLAND, .... 29 SHAPINSAY, ....... 33 COPINSAY, . . . . . . . 33 DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTH ISLES, . . . 35-42 HOY AND WALLS, .... 35 GR^EMSAY, CAVA, RISA LITTLE, FARA, ETC., ... 39 FLOTTA AND SWITHA, ...... 40 LAMBHOLM, BURRAY, HUNDA, AND GLIMPSHOLM, . 41 SOUTH RONALDSAY, ... .42 DESCRIPTION OF STACK AND SKERRY, 45 DESCRIPTION OF THE PENTLAND SKERRIES, 49 MAMMALS, . . 61 BIRDS, . 91 REPTILES, . 265 AMPHIBIANS, 265 FISHES, 266 APPENDIX, . 297 INDEX, 305 ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATED TITLEPAGE, by EDWIN ALEXANDEK. Engraved by ANNAN and SWAN, . . . . . Titlepage MULL HEAD, PAPA WESTRAY. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, ........ 22 COPINSAY. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, ... 34 HOY CLIFFS, by J. G. MILLAIS. Engraved by Messrs. ANNAN and SWAN, ......... 36 EISA LITTLE, by J. G. MILLAIS. Engraved by Messrs. ANNAN and SWAN, ......... 40 STACK, LOOKING WEST. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, . 46 NORTH END OF STACK AND SKERRY. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, ...... 48 CORMORANTS NESTING ON SEAL SKERRY, N. RONALDSAY. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, ..... 70 BREEDING-PLACE OF THE CORMORANT. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, . . . . . . .157 STENNESS, by J. G. MILLAIS. Engraved by Messrs. ANNAN and SWAN > ' V - .168 KITTIWAKE'S NEST. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, J 236 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE EAST SIDE OF PAPA WESTRAY, LOOKING NORTH-WEST, by E. CALDWELL. Engraved by Messrs. ANNAN and SWAN, 246 THE ACTUAL GRANNIE BETWEEN THE CAVES ON PAPA WESTRAY IN WHICH THE LAST GREAT AUK LIVED. From a Photograph by Mr. W. NORRIE, 252 MAP OF THE ORKNEY ISLANDS. By Messrs. JOHN BARTHOLOMEW and Co., . .... 314 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERING the number of local faunas already issued, it seems not a little curious that Orkney should have been so long left to take care of itself, there having been no attempt made to write a Fauna of the whole group, since Messrs. Baikie and Heddle's work appeared in 1848. And this is the stranger, as islands generally possess, for the naturalist, a greater interest 'than a mainland. Certainly there are articles in several of the Natural History maga- zines which bear on the subject, and we ourselves wrote a paper on the Mammals and Birds of Eousay, 1 the result of a nine months' residence on that island. But all these are isolated cases, and require collecting and revising before they can be brought into a " harmonious whole." The Zoologist, Field, and Land and Water, contain numberless references to the capture of rare visitants, but the want of a good index to the first named, and the comparative inaccessibility of the two latter, render the work of collecting these records almost impossible ; but such notices as we have been able to cull from them will be found under the species to which they refer. Eeaders of our book need not expect much in the way of novelty, even possibly there may not be much of interest, as local faunas must, to a large extent, be repetitions of each other : still we trust it will be a solid link in the chain, and we have done our best to make the information as accurate as possible. With a few exceptions, we have personally visited every island of the group. By this we do not wish it to be imagined that such a casual survey makes us complete authorities on the fauna of each individual island, but it has enabled us to form a very good idea of it as a whole. Our numerous correspondents, both residents and visitors, have most ably assisted us, and enabled us to arrive at what we trust will be found a very fair if not thoroughly exhaus- 1 Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, vol. i. New Series, pp. 44 et seq. xvm INTRODUCTORY. tive summary of the whole faunal history of the islands, both past and present. The Orkney Islands have a long history, and a very large litera- ture, for from very early times they have been of great importance, perhaps more so during the Norse period and down to the fifteenth or sixteenth century than they have ever been since. Zoology, however, did not flourish much as a science during those stormy periods, though occasional reference to the more im- portant animals occur in the Orkneyinga Sagas. Several notes of mammals and birds are to be found in Sibbald's Scotia Illustrata, still more in the works of Wallace and Fea. The former of these two latter authors gives many notices of birds, and we are indebted to him for first recording the Eoller, Hoopoe and Bittern from these islands, though the last-named bird seems to have been of doubt- ful occurrence : the description of the Hoopoe is, however, made pretty clear. Eagles are constantly mentioned, and a long list of the breeding-places of the Peregrine is given, when that bird enjoyed royal protection. It is not, however, until we come to the latter half of the last century that anything practical was done for Natural History. At that time (circa 1770) the Eev. George Low, minister of Birsay, encouraged by Pennant, wrote out his Fauna Orcadensis, which was edited and published in 1813, by W. Leach, Low having died before he could issue the work himself. Another posthumous work of his is, A Tour through Orkney and Shetland, which only came to light in 1879. This Tour abounds in Natural History references, and was written in 1774. In 1812, Bullock made two voyages to the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and wrote several papers in the Transactions of the Linnean Society. He also gave some notes to Montagu which were pub- lished in an appendix to his Ornithological Dictionary, those concern- ing the Great Auk being by far the most important. Bullock procured many specimens of birds when in Orkney for his London Museum, as may be seen by a reference to any of the numerous editions of his Guide to that Institution, but he never seems to have published any separate work on the Islands. INTRODUCTORY. XIX In 1837 E. Dunn published his Ornithologist's GvAde to the Islands of Orkney and Shetland, which contains a very fair list of the mam- mals and birds, though there are one or two curiously strange omis- sions. If his statements are entirely to be relied on, the avi-fauna of the islands has much altered within the last fifty years, as will be seen by a reference to the various species. Dunn was more of a collector than a naturalist, and, we are afraid, contributed not a little to the decimation of the rarer birds of both Orkney and Shetland. Next, and equally important with Low, comes the Historia Naturalis Orcadensis of Messrs. Baikie and Heddle, published in 1848, the standard work on Orkney mammals and birds, and to which we so constantly refer in our volume. Only one part of this work was ever published. Seeing that it was written by two Orcadian gentlemen, it is a great pity that it does not contain much fuller information, both as to the records of the, even then, fast- departing eagles, and also of the increase of some species which began to extend their range about that period throughout the islands. There can, however, be no doubt about its usefulness as giving a fair and interesting account of the Orcadian fauna of their day, and from notes we have seen, made by one of the authors, there is no doubt that, had a second edition ever been called for, a great improvement would have been made. In 1866 Crichton published a small book, A Naturalist's Ramble to the Orcades, which contains a good deal of useful infor- mation. He added the Honey Buzzard to the Orcadian list, though unfortunately he gives no particulars as to where or when the specimen was obtained. Than this, there is nothing that calls for any special notice. In 1883 Mr. Robert F. Spence began a history of The Birds of Orkney. Of this work 280 pages were printed, which only carries us down to the middle of the article on the Rook. Mr. Spence very kindly allowed us to see the rest of the MSS. and to use it as we liked, as it is very unlikely that the work will ever be finished. We give here a list of those books and papers which we have either consulted in writing our present volume, or which seem to XX INTRODUCTORY. us likely to be of special interest to any one who would care to inquire further into subjects more or less connected with it. Our thanks are specially due to Mr. J. W. Cursiter, of Kirkwall, for his aid in making this so complete, but at the same time it must not be looked upon as a Bibliography of the Orkney literature, which subject has been taken in hand for some time back by others more specially interested in that subject. A.D. 1684. Scotia lllustrata, sive Prodromus Historic?, Natumlis Scotice. Eoberto Sibbaldo. 1684. 1693. Wallace, Rev. James. A Description of the Isles of Orkney. 8vo. Edinburgh. - Reprint of 1693 ed. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1883. 1700. Wallace, James, M.D., F.R.S. An Account of the Islands of Orkney. 8vo. London, 1700. [This is merely a new edition of the foregoing by the first- named author's son.] 1700. Brand, Rev. John. A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pight- land Firth, and Caithness. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1700. Reprint. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1884. 1751. Voyage to Shetland, the Orkneys, and the Western Isles. 8vo. Lon- don, 1751. 1775. Fea, James, Surgeon. The Present State of the Orkney Islands Considered. 8vo. Holy Rood House, 1775. Reprint. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1884. 1774 (1879). Low, Rev. George. A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Schetland. 1774. 8vo. Kirkwall. 1879. 1775 1 (1813). Fauna Orcadensis. Circa 1770. 4to. Edinburgh, 1813. (Vide p. 86 of our present volume.) 1791. Old Statistical Account of the Orkney Islands. 8vo. 1791. 1805. Barry, Rev. George, D.D. History of the Orkney Islands. 4to. Edinburgh, 1805. Second edition, with Hendrick's Notes. 4to. Edinburgh, 1808. Reprint, with Introduction. 8vo. Kirkwall, 1867. 1806. Neill, Patrick. Tour through some of the Islands of Orkney and Shetland. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1806. 1814. Shireff, John. General View of the Agriculture of the Orkney and Shetland Islands. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1814. INTRODUCTORY. xxi 1814. Bullock, William. A Companion to the London Museum and Pantherion. 12mo. Sixteenth ed. London, 1814. 1820. Peterkin, Alexander. Rentals of the Ancient Earldom and Bishop- ric of Orkney. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1820. 1820. Edmonston, A., M.D. Observations on the Nature and Extent of the Cod-fishery of the Zetland and Orkney Islands. 8 vo. Edinburgh, 1820. 1837. Dunn, Robert. Ornithologist's Guide to the Islands of Orkney and Shetland. 8vo. London, 1837. 1842. T$QVT Statistical Account of the Orkney Islands. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1842. 1842. Wilson, James, F.R.S.E. A Voyage round the Coasts of Scotland. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1842. 1843. Zoologist, The. 8vo. London, 1843 et seq. 1848. Baikie, W. B., M.D., and Robert Heddle. Historia Naturalis Orcadensis. Part I. (all published.) 8vo. Edinburgh, 1848. 1862. Clouston, Rev. Chas. Guide to the Orkney Islands. 8vo. Edin- burgh, 1862. (This forms the Orkney division of Anderson's Guide to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and contains a list of Orkney Birds, which is, however, of little practical use, though often quoted.) 1866. Crichton, A. W. A Naturalist's Ramble to the Orcades. 12mo. London, 1866. 1871. Gray, R. Birds of the West of Scotland. 8vo. Glasgow, 1871. 1871-84. Yarrell, W. A History of British Birds. 4th ed. Svo. London, 1871-1884. 1874. Saxby, H. S., M.D. The Birds of Shetland. 8vo. Edinburgh and London, 1874. 1874. Bell, T. A History of British Quadrupeds. 2d ed. 8vo. London, 1874. 1879-87. Migration Reports. Published by a Committee of the British Association. Svo. London, 1879-87. 9 vols. 1883. Tudor, J. R. The Orkneys and Shetland. 8vo. London, 1883. 1884. Buckley, T. E. A Few Notes on the Mammals and Birds of Eou- say, one of the Orkney Islands. From the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, vol. I. New Series, p. 44 et seq. Read April 29th, 1884. 1888-9. Saunders, H. An Illustrated Manual of British Birds. Svo. London, 1888-9. Besides the above works, most of which we have consulted, we have been favoured by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson with the loan of xxii INTRODUCTORY. some letters that passed between E. F. Sheppard (who made several visits to the Orkneys during the years 1839-41) and T. C. Heysham, of Carlisle, for whom the former gentleman collected some eggs. We have also been enabled, through the kindness of Mr. South- well, to consult Salmon's Diary of his Tour in the Orkneys in 1831, from the original, which is kept in the Norwich Museum. Besides this we have incorporated into our work anything of value from Salmon's paper in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. v. pp. 415-425, entitled " Observations on the Eggs and Birds met with in a Three Weeks' Sojourn in the Orkney Islands." His stay on the islands seems to have extended from May 30th to June 21st, 1831. Between his diary and the paper just mentioned there are several discrepancies in Salmon's account of the birds he mentions. Take one instance only : the Arctic Gull or Eichardson's Skua. In his diary he states that he took a nest in Hoy, while in his paper in Loudon's Magazine he says he was too early for eggs this too on June 14th. We could name other instances, but we think the above will suffice. He says that in those days all the birds were allowed to breed unmolested. We made inquiries as to whether any ornithological notes had been left by the late Joseph Dunn, and in this search we were much assisted by Mr. Eagle Clarke and Mr. Porritt. Correspond- ence with some of Dunn's relatives and intimate friends elicited the fact that there were no notes forthcoming, and as all his effects were sold and scattered after his wife's death, if there ever were any they must have been lost. We found that others besides ourselves had been inquiring in the same direction, but apparently with no better results. This is a pity, as with Dunn's long experience of the Orkneys his notes must have proved of great interest. At the present time there is a Museum in Stromness and an Orkney Natural History Society. Mr. S. Brown, the secretary to this Society, kindly sent us a rough list of the birds in the Museum, but, unfortunately, no records of the dates or localities of either these or the mammals have been kept, which much lessens their value, especially when specimens from other places besides Orkney have been admitted. INTRODUCTORY. XXlll There was however a Museum in Kirkwall in former days, that must at one time have possessed a good many interesting birds, as will appear from what is mentioned in the body of the work. Like so many other local museums, though started with much vigour, this soon languished, partly perhaps because there was not a sufficient number of people keenly alive to its interest, and certainly it was starved from want of funds, as will be seen from the extract we give from one of Mr. Eeid's letters, that gentleman having been instrumental in starting the thing, and keeping it going as long as he could. None of the specimens that the Museum contained can now be traced ; probably not many are in existence. " I forgot if I ever told you that in 1846, Baikie and Heddle, with myself, moved in forming an Antiquarian and Natural History Society, when all the best people in the islands willingly supported the movement. I had, at that early date, commenced collecting some of the rarer and (more) brilliant birds that came in my way. These I presented to the museum (of) which I became secretary, treasurer, and custodian. I gave a room in my own house, and the Society nourished, being well supported at that time. After a year or so I got married, and soon required the room which was occupied as the museum, and the latter was removed to a larger long loft in Broad Street, where we got a working tailor to keep it, sewing at his work when he could. Well ! Baikie and Heddle left the country, and I found difficulties in meeting the expense, and gave up managing the Society, (which), after lingering on for a short time, and the rent of the room not having been paid for two years, broke up, and the whole collection was sold by public roup. During my time of it, I got a great number of birds, from the eagle to the wren. I do not remember having got any specimens of very great rarity." Mr. W. Eeid, who has so often contributed to us various notes on natural history, was born in Wick, but went to Kirkwall in 1836, he being then twenty-two years of age, and remained there thirty years, where he was in business as bookseller and stationer. Mr. Eeid then returned to Wick, and ultimately settled down at Nairn at the age of seventy. Our list of mammals includes twenty-nine species. As might be imagined from the nature of the country, we are indebted very xxiv INTRODUCTORY. largely for this number to the various species of seals and whales : possibly future investigation may add one or two more of these animals to the list. Amongst the land mammals three are supposed to have formerly inhabited Orkney, but were exterminated at a very early date viz., the Keindeer, Eed Deer, and White Hare. Since the commence- ment of this century all these, together with the Hedgehog and Brown Hare (which latter animal we have no reason to suppose was indigenous), were re-introduced directly by man. The Eeindeer died out, the Eed Deer flourished, but had to be killed down for various reasons, but the White Hare still exists in one island, and the Brown Hare, where protected, is sufficiently numerous. The Brown Hare had been previously introduced, but was said to have died out, and again to have been tried with better results : we have no record of when the Eabbit was imported, but it was abundant in 1693. Of the whole number of species included in our list, seven are of doubtful occurrence : two of these are bats, two are seals, one a whale, and the other two are the Water Shrew and the Water Eat. The omnipresent Brown Eat and House Mouse were, of course, inadvertently introduced, but there is no date of when the occur- rence took place. In our list of birds we have included no less than 223 species. Of these the Great Auk is extinct everywhere. The Ptarmigan has been exterminated entirely in the islands ; the Sea Eagle is only now an occasional visitant there ; the Golden Eagle is still rarer. All these were at one time residents, and seem to have been directly extirpated by man. Indirectly i.e. by means of cultivation and draining several species are getting rarer, but this is compensated in some degree by the spread of others which are more dependent on this cultivated area. Of those birds which man has tried to in- troduce viz., the Pheasant, Partridge, Eed-legged Partridge, and Black-game, none seem to have thriven, if indeed the most promis- ing of all, the Partridge, has not now vanished like the other three. Of the whole number, 223, we may take twenty-three species as of doubtful occurrence. Most of these doubtful ones are in- eluded in brackets ; the notes to the others will indicate sufficiently those that are meant. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE ORKNEY ISLANDS AND DESCRIPTION OF THEIR PHYSICAL FEATURES. THE ORKNEY ISLANDS, separated from the mainland of Scotland by the Pentland Firth, lie between 58 41" and 59 24' north latitude, and between 2 22' and 3 25' west longitude, thus extending over an area of more than 2000 geographical miles. Including the Pentland Skerries, the number of inhabited islands is twenty-nine, and the number of small islands, called holms, covered with herbage fit for grazing purposes, is said to be thirty-eight, besides the small half, or nearly entirely submerged rocks, called Skerries, which have none. Shirreff in his General View of the Agriculture of the Orkney Islands, published in 1814, gives the acreage of the whole group of islands as about 384,000 acres, of which 84,000 were then supposed to be in a productive state. With few exceptions, the whole coast-line of the islands is rocky, the highest part being the well-known cliffs of Hoy on the west and south-west. The average height of the sea-cliffs is certainly higher on the west side than on the east, though there are many places on the latter where they rise to a considerable altitude, such as Copinsay, and parts of S. Eonaldsay. Quantities of sea- fowl breed through all these heights ; where the ledges are small, narrow, and bare, Guillemots, Kazorbills, and Kittiwakes have taken possession, while the greener slopes are occupied by Herring Gulls, mixed here and there with a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Any extent of sandy beach is rare, though there are some patches on the Mainland. By far the greatest extent of such sea-board, however, is at Sanday, but all these sandy reaches are situated either on the east side of the islands, or else in some shel- tered bays well out of the reach of the heavy wash of the Atlantic. 2 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND PHYSICAL There are many large and well-sheltered bays scattered throughout the islands, well suited for wild-fowl, which can shift their locality with ease from one side of the island to the other, according to the wind, but good and safe anchorage for vessels of any size in all weathers is rather scarce ; the best of these per- haps are Longhope in South Walls, Stromness and Kirk wall in the Mainland, Kettletoft in Sanday, Pierowall in Westray, and St. Margaret's Hope in S. Eonaldsay. The most remarkable of all these bays is Deer Sound, which may, however, best be described as bays within a bay, and which, at one point, almost separates the parish of St. Andrews, making one of the portions into an island. This bay is one of the best-known resorts for wild-fowl in the whole of the islands, as there is here a larger extent of shallow water and diversified feeding-ground than elsewhere. All the islands are divided from each other by sounds, through which the tides run with great force and rapidity, the velocity of some of these streams (or "roosts" as they are locally termed) rising, during spring-tides, to eleven knots an hour, and the noise of these roosts resembles a huge river in full flood. These roosts, too, are very dangerous to inexperienced persons, as the waves rise to a great height, and then either break or seem to fall down suddenly, and, should a small boat get into the full strength of one of these tideways, she will fill and go down. Indeed such an accident happened to a boat we once possessed when in Eousay, and we heard, shortly after our departure, that the two men, to whom she had been sold, got caught in a roost and were drowned, a wave falling into the boat and taking her down. With experienced boatmen, however, excellent fishing may be had close to the heaviest roost. We have had splendid sport when in the slack water between the two tideways on each side of the island of Grsemsay, where, although the water was a little rough, there was little or no current. Here we had great fun with the larger "cuddies," taking in two at a time almost as fast as we could put the flies out, while the huge breakers tossed and tumbled harmlessly, with a thundering roar, on each side of us. FEATURES OF THE ORKNEY ISLES. 3 The mountainous, or rather hilly, portion of these islands (for nowhere, except perhaps in Hoy, do the hills attain to the dignity of mountains), is included in the western side of the group. By taking Hoy, the west side of the Mainland, as far as Scapa and Kirkwall, Rousay and the north and west of Westray, we include nearly all the land of any considerable altitude, except perhaps the Ward Hill of Eday. The greatest height of all these is attained by the Ward Hill in Hoy, which rises to 1564 feet. In former times it would appear that all, or nearly all, the islands were covered with heather, as, even in the most highly cultivated districts, little patches of this plant are still to be found. At the present time, however, the heather is fast disappearing before the rapid strides of agriculture, and it is now chiefly con- fined to Hoy and North Walls, the central and more hilly dis- tricts of the Mainland, Eousay, parts of Eday, and of Westray. Another cause for the rapid disappearance of the heather is a habit the natives have of stripping the ground with a sharp spade; the part thus taken off being used either for roofing or for fuel. The roots being thus destroyed, the skinned part rarely recovers ; an unsightly practice, which we wonder the proprietors allow. A great impetus was given to Orcadian agriculture about 1832, when kelp-burning became unremunerative, and steam communica- tion with the south commenced. Since then the reclamation of the waste land has gone on to the present time, and now the advance-guard of fields may be seen well up some of the lower hills, the surrounding walls showing by their whiteness their new appearing. And thus the Grouse, Golden Plover, Short-eared Owl, and other birds, interesting alike to the sportsman and naturalist, are gradually getting crowded out. The draining of the moors drives out the Snipe, once so extremely numerous, while the unnumbered, so-called, shepherds' dogs most happy misnomer together with the cats, are sadly reducing the breeding stock of such birds as Lapwings, Eing Dotterels, etc., which once swarmed. Many Orcadian gentlemen have noticed these facts to us, and regretted 4 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND PHYSICAL them. But when the area is so comparatively small, and the popu- lation increases, agriculture must push ahead to the detriment of the ferce naturce. Gamekeepers, too, except, we believe, on one estate, are unknown, so the cats and dogs have things pretty much their own way, and the wonder is that so much is left. Eegarding this disappearance of these interesting indigenous birds, we think the following notes from Mr. Watt of Skaill, him- self a resident Orcadian, cannot fail to be of interest : " The Loch of Skaill, and Bay of Skaill, have, from early obser- vation, been the resort of a variety of birds which frequent the islands, and it is with regret that I have noticed within the last twenty-five years that they are becoming every year fewer, in particular the small waders, which used to go about the sands in large flocks, and among these at times were to be seen some of the rarer kind, such as the Phalaropes, Greenshanks, Kuffs, etc. Phala- ropes I have not seen since about the year 1867; they used to breed here. I shot a couple of brace of Knots in 1868 out of a flock of ten, and last summer a friend of mine shot a brace near the Loch of Stenness. In 1884 I shot a Greenshank on the margin of the loch of Skaill, and in October last shot a Eeeve. The Turnstones, which between 1863-70 were pretty numerous, I have not seen for years, and sandlarks and Dunlins are in small numbers compared to the flocks that used to frequent our shores. The last two nested close to the bay and loch. The only reason for which I can suppose these latter birds have fallen off in number is owing to the cultivation of their former suitable and quiet breeding- grounds, which has caused them to go further north, probably to the Faroes, and the winters in the north, of late years, having been much milder, there they have remained. 1 " Snipe, Eedshanks, Golden Plover, and Green Plover or Lap- wing, were plentiful, but now few; this again is owing to the swamps being drained, and turned into fertile fields." As before mentioned, the manufacture of kelp in these islands has much decreased, but still a considerable amount is made, 1 Of course we do not agree with our friend in all respects, but the decrease in the number of birds is undoubted. FEATURES OF THE ORKNEY ISLES. 5 especially in Hoy and the Mainland, on the shores at the mouth of Hoy Sound ; and also in Westray and K Eonaldsay. When just taken out of the furnace, kelp looks very like a cinder, and has a saline taste. Wheat does not ripen so far north, but oats, bear, and barley, though often very late, give good crops. Turnips, however, and grass, grow well, giving good pasture and feeding for cattle. Although, perhaps, a minor branch of farming, no notice of agricultural resources in these islands would be complete without mentioning poultry. Without going into statistics, the amount of eggs exported from there is enormous, amounting to thousands of dozens weekly. No wonder that fowls in these parts are often called " the Orkney Bank." In an abstract rental of the Bishopric of Orkney, capons are specially mentioned, and although chickens were only valued at Id., and poultry at 3d., these are quoted as high as 6Jd. each. Since those times, however, the fashion of making capons seems to have died out. From this extract it would seem that poultry, even in those days, was an article of considerable importance. The large size and good quality of the Orkney fowls has been attributed, and we think with great likelihood, to the abundance of insect life formed by the masses of decaying seaweed lying on the shore, or scattered as manure over the fields, and this must have a great influence on their egg-producing capabilities. Owing to their being wholly surrounded and so much inter- sected by sea, and also in no slight degree to the presence of the Gulf Stream, the temperature of the Orkneys is very equable. Great heat, even in the long days in the height of summer when the sun is almost ever present, is unknown, but so again is any intense cold, and it is rare that hard frost lasts for any time, nor does snow lie long. Fogs are more prevalent in the summer and early autumn than high winds. Mr. Tudor, in his Orkneys and Shetland} p. 199, remarks that Mr. Scott of the Meteorological Office pointed out to him that the special characteristic of the Orcadian climate is the 1 The, Orkneys and Shetland. J. R. Tudor. Stanford, London, 1883. 8vo. 6 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND PHYSICAL limited range of its temperature throughout the year, which only amounts to 14 5', in which respect it resembles the west of Ireland and the Scilly Isles. The prevailing winds are from some westerly point, and this may be seen at once from the shape and appearance of the trees, where such exist. As long as they are protected by walls they grow well enough, but immediately they rise above that height the tops are at once cut off, and the boughs and twigs trained in a contrary direction. Each tree thus forms a slight protection to the one to the east of it, so that the furthest east tree is generally the tallest. Besides the actual force of the wind, no doubt the amount of salt carried in the form of fine spray has some- thing to do with their stunted growth. Even the heather on the west side of the hills grows so matted and thick that grouse might almost as easily walk on the top as through it. Trees formerly grew in many parts of Orkney, and roots have been found in Otterswick Bay, Sanday, near low-water mark. At Millbay, Stronsay, and at Eoithisholm in the same island, roots and remains of birch-trees as thick as a man's thigh, with the bark quite bright and entire on several parts of the tree, have been dug up. We ourselves have seen remains of trees beneath high-water mark, below Westness House, Eousay, proving that the sea has encroached there within comparatively recent times, as it has at Otterswick, Sanday. Mr. Moodie-Heddle informs us that a very few years ago there were still standing the remains of some sort of fir-tree at the point of North Ness, at the entrance to Longhope in Walls, which was tall enough to be quite a mark for vessels. Trees also existed in other parts of Hoy, remains of which are still found in the bays : and at Berriedale, near Kackwick, small trees of willow, with birch, ash, and hazel, still grow along the edge of one of the burns there, and to these Neill refers in his Tour. 1 At the present time trees are only to be found, with the exception of those in Hoy just mentioned, in small plantations, near, or round, the residences of the gentry, and in many cases these are by no means as well looked after as they might be. 1 A Tour through some of the Islands of Orkney and Shetland. Patrick Neill. Edinburgh, 1806. 8vo. FEATURES OF THE ORKNEY ISLES. 7 This, however, might well arise from the expense of planting and replanting; and, seeing that no remuneration can possibly be expected for all the outlay, no tree at the present time being of any use for timber, or likely to be, and that these plantations are only of use as affording a little shelter to the houses, and for ornament, they can perhaps only be regretted from an ornithologist's point of view, as, by their attractions, increasing the number of species both resident and migratory. Hardwood trees, such as plane or sycamore, mountain ash, and wych elms are the common trees here, the first named being the commonest, and found round every house where there is any plantation at all. No species of fir or larch seems now able to stand the climate. This we noticed particularly in the plantation at Muddiesdale, close to Kirkwall, one of the largest in the district; as here, all the larch, and nearly all the firs, were dead or dying, the former being covered to an inordinate extent with lichens. Perhaps the largest planted area is that round Balfour Castle, on the island of Shapinsay ; others of large extent exist at Birstane on the Mainland, at Westness in Eousay, and at Melsetter in Hoy. The largest trees are those about the Earl's and Bishop's Palaces in the town of Kirkwall, where they have the most protection from the wind : but, on the road leading up to the Gallows Hill, we noticed that all the trees along the roadside were dead or dying. Of rivers proper Orkney has none, though there are plenty of small burns, many of which are so obstructed by mill dams as to be of little practical use for fishing purposes. Of these burns, Berriedale in Hoy ; the burn that flows through Durka Dale ; the burn of Orphir, and Grsemeshall burn on the Mainland ; and Sourin in Kousay, are the most important. In lochs, however, Orkney shows more favourably ; and there are few islands, except perhaps Shapinsay and Flotta, that have not one or more, some of considerable size, such as Stenness and Harray on the Mainland. Many of these contain trout, and some of very large size, as witness the one caught at Loch Stenness, in October 1888, which weighed 30 Ibs. 8 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE ORKNEY ISLES. The Orkneys are divided into three groups, South, West, and North. All the islands lying to the south of the Mainland, of which Burray, South Ronaldsay, Hoy and Walls (these two being one island), Flotta and Grsemsay are the principal ones, are included in the South Isles. The West Isles include Gairsay, Viera, Egilsay and Rousay; while the North Isles comprise Stronsay, Sanday, Eday, North Ronaldsay, Westray, and Papa Westray. Pomona, the largest of the group, is not known to the inhabi- tants of the islands by any other title than that of the Mainland, and we wish our readers to understand that this meaning of the word holds good through all the text unless it is specially men- tioned to the contrary. It can easily be understood that a description of such well- known, and for the most part, highly cultivated, islands as the Orkneys, which are, or were, yearly visited by crowds of tourists, cannot prove of nearly the same interest as the wild outlying and scarcely visited islands of the Outer Hebrides. For one person who has visited North Ronay, Mingulay, etc., there are a hundred who have seen most of the Orkneys, and to describe the former is almost like writing a chapter on a newly found country, while Orkney has its guide-books, and, from its unrivalled archaeological remains, has been explored from end to end. In its rock scenery, however, Orkney comes well to the front, and few of the principal islands are without some picturesque bit of coast-line. There are few people who have not heard of the Old Man of Hoy, and many of our readers will have seen the magnifi- cent rocks of that island. Less known is the rock scenery of Rousay, Westray, and Papa Westray, which, though by no means equalling the best that Hoy can produce, are still worthy of notice, teeming, as most of them do in the summer, with bird life of many kinds. Bearing this in view, we have not considered it necessary to go into details of each island at any great length, excepting when particular interest attaches thereto. We have given our own experience of them, more from an ornithological point of view than any other, for more details referring our readers to Mr. Tudor's exhaustive work. THE NORTH ISLES. NOKTH KONALDSAY. THIS island is one of the smallest of the principal ones, being only about three and a half miles long by one and a half at its broadest part. Besides being the most northerly of the group, it is also the lowest lying, being only some fifty feet high at its greatest elevation. It possesses no sea-cliffs at all, the beach being composed of shingle, well worn and rounded by the action of the waves, with patches of sand here and there, which latter is apt to drift a good deal. The foundation, so to speak, of the island, is rock. The soil of North Konaldsay is light, but the whole island is well cultivated, and gives fairly good crops, the grain being prin- cipally a native black oat. Though only separated from it by a narrow firth, the climate is said to be milder than in Sanday, and Mr. Harvey told us that the late Dr. Traill, who was an excellent botanist, could grow plants that required a comparatively warm atmosphere as, for instance, the New Zealand flax better at Holland House, his residence there, than in Sanday. There are four small lochs in the island, but they contain no trout, their bottoms being excessively muddy, which gives a decided tinge to the water. Their edges are in places covered with reeds and coarse herbage, the resort of Dunlins, and in some places the surface is covered with a plant bearing a pretty white flower. One of these lochs is so overgrown with reeds and rushes that there is little or no water visible. We saw a few Wild Ducks in some of the little open spaces at the edge, but the whole of the centre was occupied by one of the largest colonies of Black-headed 10 THE NORTH ISLES. Gulls we have ever seen. There seemed to be thousands of them, as they rose screaming at our approach; but, even if we had been so minded, it would not have been easy to get to the nests, as the ground was very boggy. The whole island is surrounded by a dyke to keep the native sheep, which are here more abundant than in any other island, out of the interior, the most of which is under cultivation. Kelp-making is here conducted on a rather more extensive scale than is customary in these days. The time for burning the ware commences about the middle of May, and thereafter during the fine days of summer the smoke arising from the furnaces is quite a characteristic feature of the place. In the New Statistical Account it is reported that after a north- east gale many strange birds are occasionally found here, such as the Goatsucker, Golden-crested Wren, Cuckoo, and Snowy Owl. Lying almost due north of the island, and only a few hundred yards from it, is the Seal Skerry, the resort of the Great Grey Seal, and of Cormorants, which here nest in some numbers. The Skerry is nearly divided by a geo which runs north and south, and in which there is a very considerable depth of water. Harvie-Browii landed on the Skerry on July 2d, 1889, and after looking at and determining the species of Seals, he went to visit the cormoranty, of which due mention is made later on. This is the only regular breeding-place known to us of the Grey Seal in the islands, and it is remarkable on that account alone. SANDAY. The island of Sanday lies to the north-east of the Mainland of Orkney. It is bounded on the north by N. Konaldsay and its firth, on the east by the North Sea, on the south by Sanday Sound and Stronsay, and on the west by Eday and the North Sound. The greatest length of the island is twelve miles from north-east to south-west, and its breadth varies from half a mile to two miles, its whole surface containing about 12,000 acres, THE NORTH ISLES. 11 of which four-fifths is under cultivation. There are two inland seas, and the inlets and outlets to these are called " oyces." There are several large bays also, so that the island shows a considerable extent of coast-line. The tideways and currents running round the island, though rapid, are not dangerous, except in stormy weather, and the boatmen very often turn them to good account, by entering into them in order to expedite their passage. The climate is mild and healthy. There is not much snow or frost, and the inhabitants generally enjoy good health and long life. In three or four of the bays are found large quantities of shell- fish, principally cockles and razor-fish or spouts. There are several lochs, two or three of pretty large dimensions, but the only fish they contain are the Common Eel and a species of Stickleback. Some of the lochs are bordered with rushes and reeds, in which the Coot, Water-hen, and some ducks and gulls breed. Sanday is divided into three parts or parishes the united parishes of Cross and Burness, and Lady parish. The parishes of Lady and Burness may be characterised as of a low flat surface in general, but Cross, lying in the south and west, is more diversified, having some elevations about 250 feet above sea-level. The soil is to a large extent of a sandy nature, which most likely originally gave birth to the name of the island. The seashore on the east of Burness and Lady is in general a low-lying sandy beach, where bent grass grows freely; but around Cross and on the west of Burness it is mostly rocky, with precipices and curious caverns, where the Kock-doves live and breed, and also a great number of sea-birds. The rocks here are mostly of a secondary nature ; there is a little limestone, and on the west side, facing Eday, sandstone and sandstone flag is found. On the west shore of Cross parish there is a curious rock called " Heelabir"; it partly consists of a great many pieces of rounded sandstone and quartz, from half an ounce to several pounds in weight, attached to its surface. There is also to be seen near Scar House a large primary rock of several tons weight, which formerly lay near Saville ; there is no rock of the same kind to be found nearer than Stromness, from which it is distant some thirty miles, N.N.W. or thereby. 12 THE NORTH ISLES. There is a number of ruins, chiefly on the nesses or headlands of the coast, which are supposed to be the remains of Scandinavian buildings, such as broughs or forts, round towers, and tumuli, many of which have never been examined. There are no trees or bushes here except in gardens, and these grow only as high as they have shelter, owing to the sea-spray, which, in a storm, either injures them or kills them altogether. For the foregoing account we are largely indebted to Mr. Harvey of Lopness, who has also very kindly furnished us with an account of the fauna of the island, of which he has a very good knowledge. To Mr. Harvey's account we may add, that in the New Statistical Account, published in 1842, it is said that "for at least thirty or forty years back every farmer who had the opportunity was inclined to take in the waste land in the parish of Lady (the eastern portion of the island). Before that time it was considered imprac- ticable, but now it seems as if in a few years' time there will be no waste land in the parish." One of the things that struck us most as we passed along the east coast of Sanday was the dazzling whiteness of the sand, which was quite different from many parts of the east coast of Scotland which we have visited, and where the sand is much browner. We anchored the yacht in Otterswick, which is well sheltered from nearly every wind that blows ; in the bay we saw what we took to be a Black- throated Diver, a rare bird in these islands. We walked through all the north-east end of the island, the road running behind the sand-hills, which here fringe the sea-coast. The Start Lighthouse is situated on a peninsula, which is joined to the island by a slightly raised gravelly beach. On interviewing the lighthouse-keeper, and asking him if he received the Migration Schedules, he said he did, but so few birds struck the light they were not worth recording. He complained, however, of the number of Starlings, which made a filthy mess of his lights. He put down the paucity of bird-life there to the fact that the light is fixed red. He told us that many Sandgrouse had been about, but that all had left ; however, we sub- sequently saw some ourselves there, flying south-east. With the exception of some shallow lochs, some of which were THE NORTH ISLES. 13 nearly dry on this occasion, and the adjoining marshy ground, and the land immediately adjacent to the shore, the whole island is cul- tivated. The marshes were full of bird-life Sheldrakes, Wild Ducks, Coots, Peewits, Dunlins, and Terns, being everywhere pre- sent ; all the terns we could identify were Arctic. We picked up the wings of a Purple Sandpiper, and a Pintail drake, neither of which are considered common birds there. The highest part of the island lies to the south-west, and here the rocks, though by no means lofty, have steep, grassy slopes, ending in short precipices, which afford hiding-places to a good many sea-fowl, especially Black Guillemots. The lochs have the same characteristics as those we described in North Konaldsay, but are of greater extent ; Coots are very common on them. Sanday has long held the position of giving more rare birds to the Orkney fauna than any other island perhaps in the group. A reference to Messrs. Baikie and Heddle's book will show this, and how the ornithology of the islands is indebted to the exertions and accurate observations of the late Mr. Strang of Lopness. Mr. Harvey, who succeeded that gentleman to the same farm, seems also to be possessed of the same tastes, and has added one or two more birds to the list, notably the Nutcracker. Mr. Denison of Brough has a very interesting collection of birds, mostly taken on the island, which he was kind enough to show us, and from whom we got one or two interesting facts. STKONSAY. This island is much more interesting to the agriculturalist than the ornithologist, nearly the whole of it being devoted to cultiva- tion, with the exception of one considerable stretch of ground in the south-east. This part of the island, which is called Koithis- holm (pronounced Eousholm), we explored, but unsuccessfully, in search of Whimbrels. The centre of this area is covered with stunted heather, and contains a certain amount of peat ; the rest is covered with grass, which gives good grazing for sheep. From the narrow neck between St. Catherine's Bay and the Bay of Holland the land rises gradually, and terminates at Koithisholm Head in 4 THE NORTH ISLES. some steep rocks, which are tenanted by Shags, Cormorants, Herring Gulls, a pair or two of Great Black-backed Gulls, and a like number of Hooded Crows, which latter do an immense amount of damage to the Shags' and Cormorants' eggs, the grass above the ledges being covered with the shells. Two or three pairs of Golden Plovers, some Eider Ducks, and a few Meadow Pipits breed among the heather. Low in his Tour l mentions Stronsay as being " more unequal and moorish (than Shapinsay), full of moss and peat, except along the shore, where the ground is cultivated." In this respect it differed from Sanday and North Konaldsay, which are so destitute of native fuel that those who could afford brought their peats from Eday, while the poorer class burnt cow-dung and dried tangle. Off Stronsay, to the north-west, lies Linga Holm. This island is all grass, the best parts being those at the north and south-west ends. The centre is rather swampy, and round this the grass grows in large tussocks, which afford excellent nesting and hiding-places for the different birds that breed there ; indeed Linga Holm was one of the best places we have visited either for numbers or variety of birds. The beach is mostly shingle, but immediately below that the rocks appear, especially at the south end, where they form a convenient resting-place for the Common Seal, which is here found in some numbers. The rocks and shoal water here extend out for a long way towards Stronsay, and it is necessary to give this part a wide berth when sailing up to Linga Sound. At one time the island was inhabited, but there are no inhabitants there now, and it is used entirely as a sheep farm. We found all the usual birds here in abundance, especially Eider Ducks and Sheldrakes, and in a small pool close to the sea, a Coot, one Wild Duck, and three Teal this latter is a rare bird during the breeding season in the Orkneys. There was also a flock of about twenty Curlews, which, however, would be non-breeding birds, or possibly migrants at that date (July 3d). Many of the birds were still on their eggs ; and the crew of the yacht brought in a quantity of the different kinds, most of which proved to be very near hatching, to their great disappoint- 1 A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Shetland in 1774. George Low. Kirk wall, 1879. 8vo. THE NORTH ISLES. 15 ment. On one part of the beach were quantities of whales' bones, probably the result of some former whale hunt. There are a few Babbits on the island. There are also several small holms lying between Sanday and Stronsay, such as the holms of Spurness and Huip, but these, owing to pressure of time and the want of good anchorage near at hand for the yacht, we were unable to visit personally. EDAY. This is one of the principal islands we have not personally visited, but in regard to its avi-fauna we regret this the less, inasmuch as we have been furnished with notes thereon by Mr. Kanken, a brother-in-law of the proprietor, Mr. Hebden, all of which are entered in their proper place. Eday was at one time almost entirely covered with heather, and its large peat banks sup- plied the neighbouring islands of Sanday and North Eonaldsay. Now, however, the heather has largely disappeared, giving place in the south-east to fields so large and well cultivated that the skipper of the yacht remarked as we sailed past that they were " as good as the Lothians." This change accounts for the gradual decrease of the Grouse, and the total disappearance as a breeding species of Eichardson's Skua ; for, whatever may have been the case when Salmon and Dunn visited these islands, Mr. Kanken has frequently assured us this bird no longer breeds there now. Numbers of birds, however, breed on the Calf of Eday, an island of some 500 acres, and on the Eed Head, which latter, 200 feet high, takes its name from the red-coloured sandstone of which it is composed. The island itself is of irregular shape, and, with the Calf, which is only a few hundred yards from Eday, contains about 9000 acres. Mr. Eanken sends us the following notes on the geology of the island : " In its structure, from a geological point of view, Eday is com- paratively simple, consisting of a well-defined basin occupied by a series of extensive yellow and red sandstones, resting conform- ably on flagstones of a grey or rusty colour. Both on the east and 16 THE NORTH ISLES. west side of the island the shore section plainly shows the con- formable passage of the flagstone into the outlying arenaceous series, and, on the eastern shores especially, can be plainly seen the inter-stratification of the flagstone, with bands of laminated sandstone. About half a mile from the entrance to Calf Sound, approaching from the south-east, an interesting fault may be observed: the flags forming a low arch on which the coarser- grained sandstone rests, and again, a little to the north of the point of Veness, the flagstone is even more abruptly terminated, bring- ing down the overlying sandstone to the west. Few fossil remains are found in Eday. " The sandstone strata form prominent hills both in the northern and southern portions of the island, the beds of which are either extremely coarse-grained or frequently conglomerate in their character. The centre of the island being low, and only a few feet above high-water mark, there is some risk of its being cut in two in the course of time by the encroachment of the sea acting on the sandy soil on both sides. The sandstones of Eday are remark- able in very closely resembling the upper old red sandstone as seen in Hoy, but it is generally accepted at the present day that they form part of the flagstone series, and therefore belong to a more ancient period. " The greater portion of Eday and the whole of the Calf are occupied by these sandstones, which rise at the Ked Head in the northern extremity to a height of 210 feet, forming that bold and precipitous headland and well-defined landmark. The cliffs on the north-eastern exposure of the Calf, though not so high as the Eed Head, are much indented by the action of the sea, and are called the Grey Head. These headlands, with their remarkable colouring, are very fine and picturesque, especially when viewed from the sea, and are quite the finest rock scenery in the North Isles. About half a mile south from Carrick there is a solitary standing- stone, which, seen from Carrick Bay, looks not unlike a schooner ' running free ' in the distance. There are three lochs in the northern portion of Eday, two of which are quite shallow though of considerable extent, and being innocent of fish, except perhaps a THE NORTH ISLES. 1 7 few eels, and almost free from weeds and herbage, afford but little feeding-ground for birds. A few Swans, Golden-eye, Widgeon, Teal, etc., frequent them and the small adjoining deep loch, Dooney, in winter. " Owing to the porosity of the subsoil, there is but little marshy ground in the island, and consequently little running water, nor are springs abundant. "The Eider and Sheldrake, the Greater and Lesser Black- backed, Herring and Common Gulls, Oyster-catcher, etc., breed in considerable numbers on the Calf, and on its ledges large numbers of Cormorants, Guillemots, and Kittiwakes nest annually." NORTH FARA. Lying between Eday and the south of Westray are Fara and its Holm, which are connected at low water. Fara itself is wholly cultivated, and neither of the islands possesses any interest to the ornithologist. The Holm is covered with grass growing on a dry bed of peat, but the people of Fara are now rapidly paring it off for fuel, which will soon make the Holm nothing but bare rock and sand. A few gulls, Twites, Starlings, Black Guillemots, and one Eider Duck with one young one, were all the birds we saw. On the Red Holm, on which we could not land on account of the weather, a great number of Cormorants were resting. WESTRAY. Westray has some of the finest rock-scenery in the North Isles. Noup Head, the north-west point, stands well out into the Atlantic, and it is a fine sight to see the rollers sending their spray far up its height after an autumn gale, even from such a distance away as Rousay, as we ourselves have witnessed. To see these islands properly they should be viewed from a boat as well as from land, and this, unfortunately, time did not permit us to do, so we pre- ferred to keep upon terra firma. B 18 THE NORTH ISLES. There are three or four hills in the island, the highest, Fitty Hill, being 556 feet, the others varying from 250 feet to 350 feet. Roughly speaking, the whole of the island to the south-east of Pierowall is cultivated, the rest bare moorland and grass. Leav- ing the road that runs due south from Pierowall, the town of Westray, just opposite the foot of Fitty Hill we come almost immediately on to the heather, which occupies the slopes and bases of all the hills, it being of a better quality on the east side, where it is sheltered from the westerly gales. At the same time, though there are no Grouse resident on the island, a few, we are given to understand, are occasionally driven across from Rousay in the winter. Numbers of Lapwings breed on the heather at the base of the hills ; further up we found a few Common Gulls and Golden Plover, and a Wild Duck was flushed off her nest. At a small marshy loch a pair of Black-headed Gulls seemed, by their actions, to be breeding. Elsewhere the ground was covered with grass, and in the damp hollows there was abundance of cotton grass. On the west side many places were blown bare or cut up into channels by the heavy westerly gales. Here and there, where there was a little moisture, the runs of the Field Vole were visible. Above Noup Head the ground is again covered with a sort of stunted heather ; and on the rocks are colonies of rock birds and some Herring Gulls, but we did not notice any Shags or Cormorants, and Puffins were scarce. We saw four Ravens, probably bred about the rocks in the Head ; these are by no means common in Orkney. Another day we went round Bow Head, and on our way thither passed a large number of kelp-furnaces, which seemed, from per- sonal observation, the largest manufactory of that article in the islands; the smell from the heaps of rotting seaweed was most disgusting. With the exception, perhaps, of a few Rock Pigeons, no birds breed on the Bow, and even at Noup Head the greatest number of rock-birds seemed to be on the west side. The rocks at and around Bow Head appear to be not more than from 80 to 100 feet high ; the top? next the sea are perfectly bare of everything for some 40 or 50 yards inland, at which distance there is a regular beach of stones, which shows that the sea must wash over THE NORTH ISLES. 19 the cliffs with sufficient force to throw all the stones back to form it. Beyond this distance the Sea-pink grows more luxuriantly than in any other of the islands, and it is rooted in nothing but rocks and stones, which constitute the formation of the headland. The rocks themselves are of a peculiarly laminated character, the lamination being almost entirely parallel. The lower part in many places has been washed away, leaving an overhanging cliff. In other places the sea has formed natural arches, or, the whole of the upper part having been washed away, a long reach of gently shelving rock, perfectly bare and smooth, has been left. At the Bow, we saw a pair of immature Merlins and a Curlew, and, on our way back, a single Swift. The predominating species of small birds were Sparrows, Larks, a few Twites, Starlings, and Wheat- ears, the two first named being the commonest. Buntings, if not altogether absent, are rare in the Westray group. There are two lochs in Westray, both of which are said to con- tain trout, and are connected by a small burn. The upper one Burness is overgrown with reeds, and there are a good many Coots on it, and the Little Grebe is said to breed there, which is likely enough, although we did not ourselves observe any. A little to the north-east of the Bow lies the holm of Aikerness, a long, bare, stony island, with a little grass at the north end. We observed no birds on it, nor seals, but a few terns were fishing close by. In the winter, however, it is at times visited by large flocks of both Wild Duck and Widgeon. PAPA WESTEAY. The name of this island must always be connected in an orni- thologist's mind with one bird principally, and that the Great Auk. The connection will be found fully discussed under that bird. The island itself presents no points of particular interest, except the rock-scenery, a description of which we quote from Harvie- Brown's Journal further on. Nearly the whole area, the exception 20 THE NORTH ISLES. being a small portion of the northern end, is cultivated; the southern and eastern sides are low and sandy ; but the west, north, and north-east are rocky, and the island attains its greatest height at these points. The uncultivated area is covered with very short stunted heather, in places barely discernible through the coarse grass. Numbers of the common waders breed in this uncultivated tract, and on the grassy height and on the rocks below we saw the largest collection of gulls of different species that we met with anywhere in the islands, all, as far as could be seen with a glass, immature most of them in the nearly adult plumage. At Fowls Craig there are some Guillemots and Eazorbills, and a colony of Kittiwakes. Other birds were Larks, a few Wheatears, Corn- crakes, Eock Pipits, Starlings (not so numerous), but Sparrows in numbers. No Eider Ducks were seen here nor on the Holm, next to be described. "The lamination of the pavement-like sandstone is perfectly horizontal throughout the whole length of the cliffs about J mile, and say 50 feet in height the top courses are furthest out over the sea, each succeeding layer and each succeeding ledge, so formed, being rather less, until the sea is reached, the top thus overhanging by at least from 1 2 to 1 5 feet. On the ledges is a very extensive colony of Kittiwakes ; and a more lovely one, taken with its full surroundings, or one more perfectly disposed in abso- lutely parallel and horizontal and equidistant ledges, it would be difficult or almost impossible to conceive. "At sea-level this pavement sandstone cliff is tunnelled by innumerable caverns and arches, all running at the same angle of from 20 to 25 with the general face of the cliff, and forming, with the projecting portions of the cliff, a marvellous succession of almost perfectly equidistant buttresses lying in a north-easterly direction ; so that, rowing along from a southerly direction, not one cave is visible, naught but apparently continuous lines of hori- zontal and parallel strata ; whilst, if approaching from the opposite direction, a wonderful procession of arches and caves and buttresses is visible throughout the whole length, and, at the same time, above the caves, the regularity of the ledges and projecting sand- THE NORTH ISLES. 21 stone strata is uninterrupted by crack or crevice. The caves are very much the same in size and height, and in width and depth, and are, perhaps, about 15 feet high, thus occupying, roughly speaking, about one third of the total height of 50 feet. " There appeared to be no place where we could land and take a photograph, as the buttresses are all upon absolutely the same plane of projection, so we had to be content with the view direct from the boat. It would have been equally impossible from the top of the cliff, owing to the great overhang." (From J. A. H.-B.'s Journal, July 1889.) On the south-east side, below the Holm, is St. Tredwall's Loch, a good-sized sheet of water, with a few terns apparently breeding about its edges. The only other bird we saw on it was a Eedbreasted Merganser. In the marshy ground round it were a few Dunlins, and a pair or two of Kedshanks. The loch is separated from the sea on its east and south sides by a sandbank. HOLM OF PAPA WESTKAY. The Holm of Papa Westray lies about three-quarters of a mile from the eastern centre of Papa Westray. The channel between the two islands is quite shallow, and, from the lowness of the land opposite, they would appear to have been connected at no great distance of time back. To the north, east, and south-east, however, the land is higher, and is bounded by cliffs, though none of these are of any great altitude. These cliffs have the same laminated appearance as those of Papa Westray itself, and, like them, are tunnelled with caves, or pierced by geb's. Great numbers of Black Guillemots inhabit the rocks on the south-east, and indeed they seemed to be the most abundant species in the island. Mr. Traill of Holland used to preserve the island very strictly, the birds not being molested except at certain times. Since it has passed out of his possession things are changed, and the day we landed on it (June 22) all the nests had been robbed, as we found scarcely any eggs or young birds. All the terns we could 22 THE NORTH ISLES. identify were Arctic ; one of their nests contained three eggs, a by- no-means common occurrence in Orkney in our experience. There were also one or two pairs of Great Black-backed Gulls, a small colony of Herring Gulls in a geo, a pair of Twites and Hooded Crows, and a good many Oyster-catchers. There were three or four Curlews, which did not seem to have been nesting, however ; only one wild duck was seen, apparently a common Wild Duck ; no Eiders nor Common Gulls; a white pigeon 1 was sitting on some ruins, and, judging by the quantity of droppings, these ruins are frequented by a good many Eock Doves. All the Shags and Cormorants we saw were merely sitting about on the rocks, not nesting there. There is no cultivation on the Holm, which is covered with grass, and used as a sheep-farm ; nor are there any inhabitants. 1 Possibly an albino Rock Dove. THE WESTEEN ISLES. KOUSAY. THIS island, lying north of the Mainland, and separated from it by the Sound of Eynhallow, is of considerable extent, containing in all about 15,000 acres. A very fair proportion is cultivated, and besides, on the south and west, there is a large extent of good green grazing ground. There is an excellent road running all round the island. The whole of the coast-line is rocky ; low, and mixed with patches of rough shingle on the south and east, and on the north and west rising to cliffs of considerable altitude. These cliffs afford nesting sites for a goodly number of rock birds, sone Rock Pigeons ; and in one place a pair of Peregrines are continually seen, though the nest has not been discovered. A detached stack of rock, called the Lobist, on the west side, is covered on the top with nests of the Herring Gull. A peculiarity of the shingle is that it is composed of flat stones, and this appar- ently arises from the fact that the rock from which the shingle origi- nated is very soft, and easily split into large slabs, which again break up into smaller, but still flat, pieces. These large slabs are much used for roofing cottages. Inside the cultivated area, which natur- ally lies near the coast, the ground is heathery, and rises to a height of between 800 and 900 feet ; most of this is good grouse ground. Ron say contains six lochs, but three of these are small and of no interest ; the other three, however, all contain trout of good quality. Two of these lochs, in the centre of the island, called the "Muckle" and the Pirie" waters, are connected, and a burn runs out of them into the sea at Sourin on the north side of the island. The third, called " Wasbister," is low down, very near the sea-level, and only about 150 yards from the sea itself; a small burn runs out of it into the sea, but, like the burn that runs out of the other 24 THE WESTERN ISLES. two lochs, sluices for the mill-leads pretty effectually prevent the sea-trout from getting access to it. Though large sea-trout enter the Sourin burn, these are generally poached by people who are on the watch for them, and the only one we ever caught on the island was about one pound weight, and not far from the sluice on the Muckle Water. The house of Westness is remarkable for being surrounded by perhaps one of the largest, if not the largest, plantations in the Orkneys. The trees are principally sycamore and wych elms, but they are bent and stunted by the salt-laden strong westerly gales, which would never allow a thing to grow at all were it not for the protection of a high wall, and it is only towards the centre of the plantation that the trees attain to any size. None of the coui ferae seem to thrive at all in fact, scarcely even start a growth. Yet that trees did flourish naturally at one time is evident by the remains that exist on the west side of Westness, where, when the tide was out, under a very thin layer of sand, we found peat, and in it the remains of their roots. Naturally this plantation is a great attraction to the small birds, who build and roost there in numbers, though the absence of Chaffinches, except as winter visitants, is not a little remarkable. Often as it has been described, yet to a lover of nature there is always something new or grand in looking upon such an ocean as the Atlantic, and when a heavy sea was running we have often gone to Scabra Head, near Westness, as close to the cliff- edge as we dared, to see the breakers coming in. This was not always an easy matter, as, although the cliffs are some 80 or 100 feet high, the spray was so thick and heavy as to drench one in a moment. Choosing a spot where the full force of the Atlantic breakers was somewhat broken by an intervening rock, we would sit down and enjoy the sight, though the earth shook with the concussion of each huge wave. It was very interesting to watch the Cormorants and Shags not far from the foot of the rock ; just as a huge green wave was apparently about to immolate them, the birds dived and were seen the next minute swimming quietly in the trough between it and the next roller. This was THE WESTERN ISLES. 25 more frequently seen, however, after the storm, and when the waves, though still almost equally high, were less broken. One of our pleasantest reminiscences of Orkney is a voyage we made in a small boat round Eousay. The day was really fine, with a suitable breeze and tide, and we saw the rock-scenery under every advantage. Bound Scabra Head are some fine natural arches and buttresses, the home of Guillemots and Eazorbills. Beyond this the shore is low and rocky, but a little further on it rises rather abruptly, until one comes to Bring Head, and still further on to Hellia Spur, the highest cliffs of all. Here there is a very fine, large colony of rock-birds, certainly the best in the island. The top of the Lobist, a detached stack of rock, is covered with Herring Gulls, the sides being inhabited by Eazorbills and Shags. Further on we come to a set of fine natural caves called the Sinians of Cutclaws ; these terminate inland in those curious openings called gloups or blow-holes. Eound Sacquoy Head are some awful- looking geos, but these and the rocks, almost until Saviskail Head is passed, are inhabited only by Eock Pigeons and a few Shags. Shortly after passing this Head the shore again lowers until, at Saviskail itself, the short burn that connects Loch Wasbister with the sea is reached ; here some fishing-boats are hauled up. Faraclet is the next high cliff, dark and lowering, and, from its sheerness, looking higher than it really is ; Cormorants and Eock Pigeons are its principal inhabitants. This headland ends the high cliffs, and we pass by Scockness, well sheltered from the westerly gales by the land sloping down from Faraclet heights. We visited both the Holm of Scockness and Kili Holm, and found plenty of birds breeding there, such as Sheldrakes, Eider Ducks, Corncrakes, Snipe, Dunlins, etc. The Holm of Scockness is sandy in the north-east, and there are some rabbits there. VIEEA. This is one of the smaller islands, being about two miles long and one broad in its widest part, and is nearly all cultivated, with the exception of the west end, where there is some marshy ground 26 THE WESTERN ISLES. and a small loch. At this end Dunlins breed abundantly, also a colony of terns and a few Oyster-catchers. It was here too we saw one of the only two Grey Seals observed by us during our residence in Kousay. The island itself is rocky on the east and south sides, though nowhere are the rocks higher than a few feet : the north- west and west sides are shingly, and on the north-west promontory is a very old cod-drying establishment, still used. It is not every shingle that is suitable for this work, for, besides being exposed to the air above, the fish must have some draught below them as well, and for this purpose the coarse shingle is well adapted. The fish Cod, Ling, and Torsk, or Tusk, as it is more generally called are caught a little beyond the Westray Firth, in small smacks of ten, fifteen, or twenty tons. Numbers of Golden Plovers come here in the winter so the keeper informed us and at times a fair number of Snipe. The channels round Viera are mostly very shallow, except between it and the island of Egilsay. EYNHALLOW. Eynhallow is the property of E. S. Cameron, Esq., and lies between Rousay and the Mainland in the sound to which it gives its name. The tides here run with great speed on either side of the island, and, even in calm weather, can only be crossed, except in certain places, at high and low water. When in full force, boats can only cross above or below, and in going outside the islands care must be taken to keep on one side or other of the stream. The island is mostly rocky; on the north-west side, facing the Atlantic, the cliffs rise to about 200 feet in height, and these are inhabited by a few Shags, Rock Pigeons, and a pair of Kestrels. These rocks slope down on the west and east sides until at the south end they are level with the water, ending in a long reef of rock covered at high tide. Along the lower sides are heaps of shingle, and above the shingle some larger slabs of stone, under which the Black Guillemots and Starlings build, and in two places the former birds breed in quite small colonies. The island, like so many of the smaller holms, is covered with a coarse grass, to THE WESTERN ISLES. - 27 which at one time sheep, cattle, and horses were brought across to feed. The southern end of the island once contained inhabitants, but all, or nearly all, of them having died of fever, it has since been deserted. Rabbits are very abundant. Since the island came into the possession of Mr. Cameron it has been very strictly preserved. The consequence of this is that birds have increased vastly in numbers, and at the time of our visit Eiders might be seen in every direction sitting on their nests. The Common and Black-headed Gulls have also established good-sized colonies, the latter breed- ing in almost quite dry situations in the stunted heather and short grass, their nests showing no difference from those of their neighbours the first-named birds. Before they were preserved, the birds, as elsewhere, were systematically robbed, and when we were there in 1883, the Eiders were quite rare birds by comparison. GAIRSAY. Lying almost due north of Kirkwall, this is the first island met with when going in that direction. It is small, being only a mile and a quarter long by about three-quarters of a mile broad on the average, but the ground rises to a considerable height. Although, as usual, the shores are mostly rocky, these nowhere rise to any altitude, and they afford no great attraction for any species of rock- bird. On the north side are some quiet bays, where we have seen a good number of Wild Duck and Widgeon, there being good feeding- ground for them there. Sweyn Holm lies to the north-east, and a visit to it in the breeding season is of great interest, from the variety and number of birds breeding there. Snipe and Eider Ducks are very numerous, besides an abundance of Redshanks, Terns, Shel- drakes, etc. Between Gairsay and Shapinsay are some skerries, mostly covered at high water, but upon which, as the tide ebbs, numbers of the Common Seal assemble. EGILSAY. The island of Egilsay lies to the east of Rousay, and is about three miles long by one broad on an average. The sea-beach is 28 THE WESTERN ISLES. mostly rocky, but above high-water mark on the east side are some sandy hills, and sandy ground covered with a short, sweet grass, and inhabited by a few Babbits. At the south end is a low reef of rocks, called The Grand, mostly covered at high water, and a great resort of the Common Seal. There are two or three lochs in the island, and to the one at the south end the sea would appear occasionally to have access. A small island in the latter loch contained a Ked- breasted Merganser's nest, apparently just robbed. The other lochs are more marshy in their character, and have a considerable amount of reeds, amongst which a single pair of Black-headed Gulls appeared to have a nest. Besides these birds, we saw several Coots, Wild Duck, Little Grebes, and Waterhens, these last two birds not being very common anywhere among the islands, at least in the breeding season. The church of St. Magnus, now disused, but still well preserved, is a most striking object, its thin round tower having a very curious appearance, like a small mill-chimney. In this tower several pairs of Kock Doves were breeding. There are a good many small farms on the island. Egilsay is in the shape of a wedge, and is highest at the blunt or north end, gradually tapering down to sea-level at the south or thin end. The central ridge is covered with the usual stunted heather where not cultivated, and there are many marshy depres- sions, where quantities of Dunlins and some Snipe breed, the island affording, in the winter, excellent snipe-shooting. Lying midway between Egilsay, Shapinsay, and Eday are the Green Holms, two islands, as their name implies, covered with grass, and both uninhabited. We visited these on two occasions in search of Stormy Petrel's eggs. The larger island is on the north- east side, high enough for some Cormorants and Shags to breed upon, but it held no other rock-birds, except pigeons, that we observed. The grass grows on a sort of dry peat, and it was in the cracks in this peat that the Petrels bred on the smaller island; on the larger holm they kept more to the stony cairns on the shore. THE MAINLAND, SHAPINSAY, AND COPINSAY. THE MAINLAND. POMONA, or the Mainland, as it is always called by the Orcadians, is the largest island of the group, and it is on this account that it derives the latter name. It is about twenty- six miles long in its greatest length, and fourteen broad in its greatest width. In two places it is nearly severed by the sea, viz., between Scapa and Kirkwall, where the breadth is only a mile and a quarter, and again at the south-eastern extremity of Deer Sound, where the parish of St. Andrews is almost divided by a very narrow isthmus, over which runs the main road. The greater part of the coast-line is rocky, and is much cut up by bays and firths on its north-eastern side, the chief of these being the Bay of Firth, Inganess Bay, and Deer Sound, the two principal indentations on the south side being the Bay of Ireland and Scapa Bay. As is usually the case, the most pre- cipitous parts are those facing the two oceans ; on the west side the highest cliffs lie between Costa Head in the north and Breck- ness Head in the south, close to which latter place is the celebrated Black Craig. On the east, the rocks, from the Point of Ayre, terminate in the bold rocky headland of Mull Head, in Low's time tenanted by a pair of Sea Eagles, and which, that author remarks, had been thus occupied from time immemorial. It is almost need- less to add there are no eagles there now. The absence of clean sandy shores is noticeable, but there are a few patches cropping up here and there, as at Skaill in the west, at Waulkmill Bay and Scapa Bay in the south, and Birstane Bay in the north-east. 30 THE MAINLAND. The remaining coast-line consists of rocks and cliffs of no great altitude, the beach composed chiefly of stones and boulders covered with sea-weed, a coarse shingle showing itself here and there above the high-water mark. Unpromising as it sounds to a wild fowler, yet, except upon the western part, a goodly number of ducks inhabit the coast, the numerous small burns which run down through the cultivated ground bringing with them, besides the attraction of fresh water, a consider- able amount of food. There are, however, certain places along the coast which offer still greater attractions to these birds, and the different waders, in the shape of ooze-flats, partly covered with zostera, the grass so greedily sought after by both geese and ducks. Principal among these is Deer Sound, which, itself a bay, has within it other bays well sheltered from almost every wind that blows, and thus in every way perfectly adapted to the requirements of wild-fowl. Another spot is the Bay of Ireland, which presents pretty much the same characteristics as Deer Sound, with the addi- tion that it is near the large fresh-water loch of Harray, and the cultivated lands adjacent, which provide excellent feeding-ground. Lying in the west central part, and running from north to south, is a chain of lochs of which Stenness and Harray together form by far the largest area. Others of considerable size are those of Swaimay and Boardhouse. The highest of all is Swannay, which lies 137 feet above sea-level, and from it there is a regular gradation until Stenness, the last of the chain, is reached, and to this the sea has access at high spring-tides. Lochs Boardhouse and Swannay run into the sea on the north-west, but a number of smaller lochs are connected with those of Harray and Stenness, the united waters of which run into the sea at the Bay of Ireland in the south. The lochs of Stenness and Harray, which are only separated from each other by a very narrow isthmus formed of rough masonry, through arches in which the water runs, lie in a kind of shallow valley surrounded by hills, highest on the westward side, and the slopes of which elevations are mostly cultivated. Perhaps one of the finest and most characteristic views in Orkney is from the THE MAINLAND. 31 Maeshowe. Away to the north-west lies the long reach of the Harray loch, looking yet longer than it really is when seen through the haze, which, even on a fine summer day, is so often present in Orkney. To the south-west the high hills of Hoy appear ; thus, at one glance, the eye can take in the highest land and the greatest extent of fresh water to be found in the whole of the islands. With the exception of two, all the lochs of any importance are included in the area now under consideration. Most of these are great resorts of wild-fowl, which in summer breed along their margins; and in winter, when their numbers are largely augmented by northern migrants, they collect in great flocks, which are composed principally of Wild Duck and Widgeon. Along the edges of one or two of these lochs are large flats covered with grass, which run out into the water. These places attract numbers of swans and grey geese, the greater number of these latter birds being the White-fronted species. Most of these lochs, too, contain trout, though others, even of some extent, such as the Loch of Skaill, contain only eels and sticklebacks. The other two lochs just referred to are Kirbister, in the parish of Orphir, and the loch of Tankerness, the former containing trout, the latter none. Though now only a marsh, the loch of Aikerness, in the parish of Evie, deserves a notice here, as it is often mentioned by earlier writers as a breeding-place and haunt of several water-fowl ; even yet Waterhens breed there. From Low's account it seems to have been a shallow, grassy loch, and as early as 1804 was partially drained. Eastward of the lochs of Stenness and Harray, just described, runs a range of hills, rising towards the south-east, until, at Lyra- dale, it divides off into two branches, one running south-west, and the other almost due east. In the south-west range lies the highest hill on the island, viz., the Ward Hill, 1 880 feet. The 1 Ward Hill. Refer to the hill of the same name and meaning in Caithness, the fires on which are visible across the Pentland Firth, as " Ward and Watch " Hills-Signal Hills. There is a " Ward Hill " in every island that possesses hills of any height. 32 THE MAINLAND. eastern branch terminates just above Kirk wall, at Wideford, which is 720 feet in height. The tops of all these hills are covered with heather, forming almost the last stronghold of the grouse and hares in the island. In the hollows, wherever there is sufficient moisture, the cotton grass grows to a great extent, and the heads are finer than we have seen elsewhere. We were particularly struck with this when looking one day from the top of Wideford Hill down on to the hollow between it and the hills lying to the south-west. The whole of this hollow was white, looking much more as if it was covered with snow than anything else. A very fine panorama of almost the whole group of the Orkneys may be obtained from Wideford Hill on a clear day, and there is no better view of Kirkwall to be got from any other point. After crossing the isthmus between Kirkwall and Scapa, the ground rises somewhat quickly to the east of the town, but there is no high ground anywhere on the east side of the isthmus. The isthmus itself is low-lying, and, before they were drained, the Crantit meadows afforded good snipe-shooting, and Waterhens bred in the wetter localities. Through the greater part of this peninsula, which includes the parishes of Holm and St. Andrews, there is little of interest to the lover of scenery or the ornitho- logist, unless it be Mull Head and Deer Sound, before mentioned. Nowhere does the land rise above 300 feet in height, and it only attains to that altitude in one place. There is some heather in the central parts, and we should say the best grouse ground is that belonging to Tankerness. Hares are also plentiful in that district. At St. Mary's there are two lochs belonging to the Gr8emeshall estate, which are said to afford good fishing, and ducks are abun- dant there in the winter, but when passing them in the month of June we saw only a few Mallards and a Coot. There is a fine gloup about a mile or a little more to the south of Mull Head. The cultivated area occupies a very large part of the whole island. We have no statistics at hand to give the exact propor- tions, but, roughly speaking, we should say at least a half, and reclam ation of the waste land is still going on. SHAPINSAY COPINS A Y. 3 3 111 our chapter on the physical features of the islands we have given an account of the principal plantations, but we may add that no house of any age is without some amount of trees round it, both, no doubt, for appearance and shelter. SHAPINSAY. This island, perhaps more than any other, shows to what extent cultivation has increased in the Orkneys. In the Farmer for April 1866 it is stated that Shapinsay contains about 7000 acres, of which, fifteen years previously, only 730 were under cultivation, but that now (i.e. 1866) 5000 have been brought under the plough. Since then, we believe, even more land has been taken in, until there is little or no waste land left. The coast is, as usual, very rocky ; and Elswick Bay, shut in as it is by Helliar Holm, is a safe anchorage for vessels. There is one loch on the island, which we are informed is good for ducks in winter. One or two islands and skerries, lying between Shapinsay and Kendall on the mainland, are great resorts of seals, and we have counted thirty or forty here at one time, all P. mtulina. A few Terns, Eider Ducks, and Eock Pipits breed on these islets, but in no great quantities. COPINSAY. Lying off the east centre of the mainland, Copinsay is cele- brated, even in Orkney, for the abundance of its sea-fowl. The cliffs on its eastern side rise to a height of close on 300 feet, and, amongst other birds, contains probably one of, if not the, finest colonies of Kittiwakes in the United Kingdom. When disturbed, these birds look, at some little distance off, like spin-drift covering the face of the rocks. On the west side the ground slopes rapidly down to the sea, and contains some good arable land, as also does. Cornholm, which, with two other small holms, are connected with Copinsay at low water. The Horse of Copinsay is a black rock lying to the north of c 34 COPINSAY. Copinsay, and is also tenanted by sea-birds, and feeds two or three sheep. Salmon visited Copinsay on May 31st, 1831, and gives an account of the birds breeding there and the eggs he took. The species he met with were a pair of Peregrine Falcons, Guillemots, Kazorbills, Kittiwakes, Cormorants, Shags, and Herring Gulls. These Peregrines are mentioned by Low as having bred there from time immemorial. He also gives an account of the manner of taking sea-birds' eggs there, and says that of old the inhabitants paid a rent for the privilege of taking them, but that it had then been given them for nothing, quaintly adding that he thought the danger of taking them was a sufficient tax. THE SOUTH ISLES. HOY AND WALLS. THE island of Hoy, whose greatest length is fourteen miles, with a width varying from four to five miles, contains the three divisions of Hoy, and North and South Walls, the latter being almost an island in itself. South Walls is almost wholly cultivated, there being only a very small piece of rough ground in the centre and south covered with the remains of stunted heather and coarse grass. With the exception of Melsetter and the land immediately adjoining the sea as far as Mill Bay, and again at Hoy in the ex- treme north-east of the island, and the small hamlet of Eackwick on the west, the whole of Hoy and North Walls is uninhabited, the country itself not being adapted for cultivation. It is -how- ever capable of grazing a good number of sheep for the greater part of the year, and there is also abundant summer pasturage for cattle. The whole of this district is mountainous, being divided by valleys through which run several small burns, and in which the lochs lie. These lochs are, unfortunately, connected with the sea only on the west side, the out-running burns having a fall varying from fifty up to several hundred feet almost sheer down to the sea, thus effectually barring out the sea-trout from gaining access to them. For some reason burn-trout do not seem to have thriven here, though introduced, together with Loch Leven trout, into Heldale water, and Mr. Moodie-Heddle fancied they had been carried down the burns during the spawning season and thus destroyed. All this large extent of country is covered with heather of different degrees of utility, and divided by numerous burns, and it is this wild mountainous character, as well as its unrivalled cliff- 36 THE SOUTH ISLES. scenery, that gives to Hoy its great interest to the ornithologist. The sea-eagles, once so numerous, are gone, never, we fear, to return again, though, should they be inclined to do so, we are safe in assuring them that the proprietor will do all in his power to protect them; but the Peregrine still holds his own, nesting in the most inaccessible precipices : the Manx Shearwater burrows in the green and soft places in the cliffs ; while numbers of Kichardson's Skua lord it over the rest of the gull tribe. All the coast-line on the north-west of the island from Breibuster Sound to Eackwick is precipitous, varying in height from 300 to over 1100 feet, and, exclusive of the Berry, contains the finest rock- scenery in the islands. The highest cliff in the whole range is at St. John's Head, the land rising on each side to this culminating point. These cliffs are by no means sheer precipices, but in many places have long grassy slopes on which sheep graze in comparative safety, and it is mostly below these slopes that the sea-birds build. Geb's and rocky inlets also break up the coast-line in parts, and there is a very fine one not far from Breibuster, inhabited by a considerable number of Shags and a good colony of Kittiwakes, etc. ; pigeons also inhabit the caves. That remarkable stack, the Old Man of Hoy, lies between St. John's and Eora Heads, and from most accounts the old gentleman has not many years to live, as he is being gradually eaten away at the base by the heavy waves of the Atlantic. 1 At Kackwick the land slopes down very suddenly to the valley, the hamlet being much scattered from pretty high up the slope down to its base. It is here that the best rock-climbers on the island lived, and still do so, and it is through their exertions probably that eagles have become only a name in Orkney. All this coast-line just described slopes down on the landward side more or less abruptly to a valley through which runs the part- road, part-track to Kackwick from Hoy Lodge. At this latter place the proprietor is now taking in a considerable extent of ground, 1 Mr. Moodie-Heddle, however, informs us that the base is conglomerate, and that it stands upon a piece of fire rock, so he does not think it runs much risk of perishing, though a fragment of the softer sandstone forming the stack may some- times fall off. THE SOUTH ISLES. 37 with a large steading, and otherwise improving his property. From the northward this valley is joined by the narrow glens of Segal and Berriedale, 1 which contain some of the few indigenous trees in the island, as before mentioned ; 2 close to the track is one of the strongest springs of water we have seen anywhere. Separated by the strath through which the Eackwick road runs on the one side, and another deep glen on the other, stands the Ward Hill, 1564 feet in height, and the highest hill in the whole group of the Orkneys. Bound its base the heather grows, but its sides are much cut up with fissures, down which quantities of stones and rocks are brought by the winter rains, forming large " screes " or slopes of loose stones, and these, with its steep slant, give the hill an appearance of even still greater height. In the glen to the south of the Ward Hill, and facing north, are some ledges of rock on which Golden Eagles, probably the only pair in the islands, used to breed. From Rackwick the land rises southwards very abruptly from 50 to 1000 feet in a very short distance, and the whole of the coast-line all along is very steep, culminating at last in the magnificent, sheer, red-coloured precipice of Berry Head, 600 feet ; after that the land sinks down rather abruptly to Melsetter. Throughout this length of coast are several " stacks " or upright pieces of rock detached from the main cliff, their tops, as a rule, being covered with grass, though none of them is so conspicuous as the " Old Man of Hoy," before mentioned. The coast-line on the east of the island never assumes such grand proportions as that last mentioned, the whole land falling towards that point of the compass ; the shore is more indented with bays, having sandy or muddy flats in their upper reaches. Elsewhere along the eastern side the coast is mainly composed of low cliffs, or steep banks clad with grass, fern, and heather, having rarely any beach beyond boulders and weed-covered rock. Only at two places towards the northern end of the line do the cliffs rise to some 200 to 300 feet in the precipices known as the White Breast and the Bring. 1 Berrie = Berry = Bergdale = the Rocky Glen. 2 Vide p. 6. 38 THE SOUTH ISLES. All the best heather, and consequently the best grouse ground, lies on the lower slopes of the hills, especially on the east side ; that which is exposed to the west being poor and stunted ; the tops and sides of the hills are covered with flow ground and benty grass, the latter of little use, except in the early summer for sheep and cattle. There are three lochs of considerable size, all in that part of the island called Walls, and the largest, called Heldale Water, contains char, the only loch that does so in Orkney. Besides these lochs there are a number of much smaller ones, called locally " Loom-a-shons," or "Loom-a-gens," on which the Red- throated Divers breed, and these birds the proprietor does his best to protect, though we fear they do not always escape the destroyer. Colonies of gulls, both the Common, Herring, and Lesser Black- back, breed on the flows on the tops of the hills or along the edges of the lochs, mixed, in the former situation, with Richardson's Skuas, but never in the latter. Most of the burns, except those which run to the west, contain trout and sea-trout, but the latter only come up in a spate and retire to the salt water as the flood fines down ; indeed, the most of the angling consists in spinning some form of minnow in the salt water. The largest of these burns is the Rackwick, which in its lower reaches is sluggish and canal-like ; it runs into a loch close to the sea, and to which the latter has access at high water. Immediately above Melsetter is a large patch of whins, in which are great quantities of rabbits ; and a little below, on the south shore, some links, and a white patch of sand which is very conspicuous when crossing from Scrabster to Scapa with an incom- ing tide. As before mentioned, South Walls is almost an island, being connected with North Walls by a very narrow neck of land, over which the road to the Post Office, etc., runs. On the south side of this isthmus is Aith Hope, and on the north Longhope. At one time this neck of land was much broader, and links existed, but these have been washed away by the encroachments of the sea, so much so that now even the ordinary tides cover the Ayre at high water for thirty to forty minutes, the stream tides THE SOUTH ISLES. 39 for an hour or more, according to the height to which the gravel may have been thrown by the last gales. The water flows usually from the north or Longhope side, but before or after bad weather it comes occasionally from the Aith Hope side. Hope in all Scan- dinavian tongues (Haup) means a bay which is the Hap, Haven, or recipient of a stream. The lower part of Longhope is excellent anchorage for sailing vessels which cannot weather through the Pentland Firth for want of a favourable wind. The upper part at one time contained oysters, which were cultivated to a certain extent by the proprietor of Melsetter, but owing to the mud and peat washed down by the burns, and sheep drains made when the present owner of Hoy in- creased the area under cultivation, and otherwise improved the property, they died out, and at the present time there are few, if any, left. Low says that in his time they were, though few, so very large that they had to be cut into four pieces before they could be eaten! Even cockles were nearly exterminated, and several kinds of sea- weed affected, by this peaty deposit. South Walls contains little of interest to the ornithologist. The rocks on the south side contain a few rock-birds and pigeons, and there is one fine colony of Kittiwakes. At the south-east end there is a very curious old church, in which, in former years, the Hoodies of Melsetter were laid out on a table to dry when dead, showing the dry and antiseptic nature of the air. GE.EMSAY, CAVA, EISA LITTLE, FAKA, ETC. Lying along the north-east coast of Hoy, and between it and S. Eonaldsay, are the islands of Grsemsay, Cava, Eisa Little, Fara, Flotta and its Calf, and Switha, which however are only deserving of a short notice here. Graemsay, situated at the mouth of Hoy Sound, has two light- houses, and is wholly cultivated, there being little or no grazing all arable. Eisa Little and Cava are small green uninhabited islands, used for grazing purposes, as is also Fara, but this latter is 40 THE SOUTH ISLES. inhabited. All these islands are frequented by Grouse, and of late years a large colony of the Common Gull has taken possession of Kisa Little; a good many seals also frequent the shores of this island. FLOTTA AND SWITHA. Flotta is much the largest of the islands now under considera- tion, and supports a considerable population. Still it is by no means over-cultivated, and a fair number of grouse are yearly killed there, especially late in the season, when a good many birds come across from Walls. "We saw a few Curlews, Golden Plover, and some of the commoner gulls ; but the shores, though rocky, are not possessed of cliffs high enough to afford nesting-places for any of the rock-birds. On the east side of the island is the bay of Panhope, one of the best harbours in the South Isles, and, accord- ing to Low, so called from there having been a salt-pan there, which, however, had been given up even in his day. Low also mentions that there was a great fishery for Coalfish here, to which most of the boats in the South Isles repaired. This fishery was followed, and occasionally interrupted, by dog-fish, which, however, the islanders did not consider an unmixed evil, as, although these creatures drove every other fish away when they put in an appearance, their own livers yielded oil in such abundance as to more than compensate for the loss of the fish driven away by them. A like case is mentioned by Mr. Irvine-Fortescue as occurring within the last few years at Scapa. The Calf of Flotta is green, with some patches of brackens, and has apparently a considerable depth of peat ; of birds we saw a few Snipe, four or five Wild Ducks, with some Shags, Herons, and Eiders ; some Kock Pipits and Twites among the smaller species. Switha is a fine green grassy island, with high rocks on the south and south-east side, sloping gently down to the sea on the north. We saw a good number of the common waders, such as Oyster-catchers, King Dotterel, etc., and, judging from the smell, THE SOUTH ISLES. 41 Stormy Petrels must breed in the holes and cracks in the hard peaty soil. In the rocks to the south-east we saw numbers of Black Guillemots, some Kock Doves, and numbers of Herring Gulls. In Low's time Switha was a breeding-place of the White- tailed Eagle. LAMBHOLM, BUKEAY, HUNDA, AND GLIMPSHOLM. Lying close to the north end of S. Eonaldsay are the islands of Lambholm, Burray, Hunda, and Glimpsholm. Lambholm is entirely cultivated, and possessed of no particular ornithological interest. Burray, though much cultivated, still possesses Grouse, and Mr. Cowan informs us that as many as twenty brace * may be got there any day in August; it also used to be noted for the abundance of its rabbits, but this did not compensate for the mis- chief they did by burrowing into the sand, and so enabling the wind to get hold of it and blow it about. Hunda is a small island about a mile long, and connected to Burray at low water by a narrow strip of beach ; it is a most desolate-looking island, scarcely a bird to be seen on it, and contains but one croft. The uncultivated part is, as usual, covered with stunted heather, mixed with an immense amount of the crowberry plant ; the top of the surface is being rapidly peeled off for fuel. The west side consists of low rocks, which contain no birds, and on the east side we only met with a very few of the commonest species, one Black Guillemot, a Eed-breasted Merganser, a Snipe, and a few Eedshanks, etc., being all we saw ; there is a little grass at the south-east end. Glimpsholm is a fine grassy island, with a little stunted heather at the north side, and on the south-east side a patch of brackens. Here was the largest colony of Arctic Terns we had as yet seen, their nests being placed at random in the short grass, some even yet empty (July 5), others containing one and two eggs. Besides terns there were quantities of the common shore waders. There was a large flock of Curlews on the island, either migrants Probably not so abundant now, judging from later information. 4:2 THE SOUTH ISLES. or non-breeding birds : one appeared to be a very small one. Other birds were a few Sheldrakes, a pair or two of Hooded Crows, but no Eiders. S. KONALDSAY. Even in Low's time, S. Eonaldsay was described by that gentleman as the granary of the South Isles, and cultivation has certainly not gone back since then; indeed, when visiting the island in June 1889, we saw fresh ground being broken up. No wonder then that bird life is getting so much scarcer in the Ork- neys; many of the indigenous birds are driven away before the plough, and from the lack of cover, this loss is not compensated for, at present, by any increase of such birds as can live under the new state of things. Of the two sides of the island the east is by far the more interesting. Around St. Margaret's Hope, which is an excellent harbour, and where the principal town of the island stands, there are a few gardens, and on the south-west of the harbour some whins, which attract a few Blackbirds, Eobins, and Linnets. Most of the ground out to Hoxa Head is cultivated, with a few patches of moorland here and there, and the south-east side consists of grassy slopes. The Head itself is rocky, and a few Herring Gulls, Cor- morants, and a pair or two of Hooded Crows, appeared to be breeding there. Widewall Bay, at the head of which is a small extent of sandy links, is a fine landlocked harbour, but too shallow to be of much use for shipping ; its coast-line is mostly sandy. Almost immediately opposite Widewall Bay, but on the other side of the island, the sand links again appear, and are, though small, rather more extensive. The cliffs on the east coast are fine, though, except in one or two places, not so precipitous as in many of the other islands, being much intersected by green ledges, and containing many long grassy slopes. There is a depression of some extent at Windwick, 1 where there is a bay, but north and south of that the land rises to between 200 and 300 feet. From the nature of the rocks, Guillemots, 1 The termination "wick" signifies, in Orkney and Shetland, a bay. THE SOUTH ISLES. 43 Kazorbills, etc., are not so abundant, but they seem exactly suited to the Herring Gulls, which, at this locality, have some of the most extensive colonies we know of in the Orkneys ; mixed with these are a very few pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and still fewer of their larger cousins. We were pleased, however, to find the (very large) colony of Jackdaws, mentioned by Low in his tour, which birds are decidedly uncommon in the islands ; and even our worthy landlord at St. Margaret's Hope, who himself had a decided turn for ornithology, did not know these birds existed in the island. A male Peregrine was flying about amidst the crowd of Herring Gulls disturbed by our approach, chattering most energetically, but the female was invisible, nor could we see anything of the nest. North of the sandy beach before mentioned at Newark Bay the coast again rises, but to no great height, Grimness, a rocky head- land, being the extreme eastern promontory. The highest point of the island is, as usual, the Ward Hill, nearly 400 feet high, not far from Stowse Head, which is as yet uncultivated, and covered with the usual very stunted heather and coarse grass. For all its size, there is no really good heather, and consequently no grouse in the island, and only a few hares and rabbits. There are many marshes and lochs in the island, especially in the south. These latter, with one exception, con- tain no trout, but they afford some of the best snipe-shooting in Orkney, for which indeed S. Konaldsay has always been famous. Besides Snipe there is abundance of Dunlins, Eedshanks, etc., but few ducks. During our walk round the island we saw but very little in the way of small birds, either in number or species, even Common Buntings and Wheatears were rare indeed, of the former we only saw one individual. We saw none of the Black-headed Gulls at the loch near the church as mentioned by Low, but many Coots and a few Waterhens. This loch is very reedy at the southern end, and the margins very boggy. Swona, which lies to the south-west of S. Eonaldsay, is a small rocky islet a little over a mile long by about a third broad. 44 THE SOUTH ISLES. The centre is grassy, and the rocks, especially at the north end, extremely sharp and jagged. This much we could see from Bur- wick, in S. Eonaldsay, but as the island lies some distance away from the latter place, and we could not hear that it possessed any- thing particularly interesting from an ornithological point of view, we did not think it worth while personally to visit it. STACK AND SKERRY. THESE islands, a sort of " No Man's Land," though said to belong to the Heddles of Melsetter, lie almost forty miles west of Hoy, and are thus described by Harvie-Brown : "June 18th, 1887. Arrived off Stacker Suliskerry early to-day with a light north-west wind, and made an easy landing on the south-east side of the Skerry, just below the remains of a small house. " Great Grey Seals in some numbers were bobbing around us in the surf. We were about two hours on the island, and then the fog came down from the northward, and we hurried again on board, as the wind freshened. Mr. Norrie took two general views from the highest point of the island, facing east and then west, and four others of geos and birds. " The island is divided near the east end by a deep geo, impass- able at low water. We landed two hours before low water, and left just at low water. " The most of the island is covered with Cochlearia officinalis, fennel, chickweed, and a dark green, luxuriant grass, the latter here and there in patches, fennel and chickweed most abundantly. I saw no appearance of sea-pink. " The rock which forms the island is composed of the newer gneiss, changing into syenite, and Professor Heddle took speci- mens. " The height of the skerry is about 50 feet at the highest point, and it slopes away to the east about half a mile ; to the west it dips quickly where two geos from north and south nearly meet, and in the hollow is a fine colony of terns. In some places the forests 46 STACK AND SKERRY. of fennel, which, when bruised, gives forth a strong aromatic scent, predominated over the cochlearia, and in others the order was reversed. The fennel seemed to choose the deeper soil of the Puffins' ground, the cochlearia preferring the stonier and thinner soil. The dark green grass before mentioned occurred in patches in the deeper soil in the hollows, and seems to have been principally encouraged by the droppings of gulls and Eider Ducks, nests of which were often placed in the thicker tufts. Here and there were pools of spray or rain-water, with rich mould and grasses round their margins, and muddy slopes, in which the footprints of ducks and gulls were abundantly visible. " Several of the pools are visited by the Great Grey Seals, which travel even as far as the middle of the island, and here an annual slaughter is made by boats from Sutherland, when the seals con- gregate in October for breeding purposes. "The birds observed on the Skerry were, Turnstones in flocks of from five to twelve ; Oyster-catchers, common ; Eock Pipits fairly abundant ; Shags very numerous, breeding all over the rocky fringe, in the open crevices of the ruins of the old house, and in almost every available spot, most of the young being hatched out. I saw no Cormorants. " Great Black-backed Gulls, a good many pairs amongst large numbers of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Herring Gulls common, apparently congregating mostly towards the east end, and on the east side of the rent or tide geo. Black Guillemots not very common, a few pairs among the barer rocks. Puffins very common all over the vegetation-covered portions, and tunnelling all over it. Eider Ducks common; I came upon several nests. The Arctic Tern was the only species of tern identified, and I shot one and preserved a foot, tail, and wing, to satisfy myself and others." On another occasion, as related below, Harvie-Brown made a second unsuccessful attempt to land upon the Stack, and we again quote from his Journal as follows : "We sailed oil the night of June 28th, 1889, for Stack, from Scrabster. A heavy sea running seriously interrupted the way of the vessel, and we did not reach off till 9 A.M. next day. STACK AND SKERRY. 47 " June 29th. Impossible to effect a landing, and useless to attempt it. Mr. Norrie, however, made seven or eight first-rate ' shots ' with his camera. "The height of the Stack is 130 feet. A smooth square preci- pice of a greenish-grey rock, seamed near the top with a broad horizontal dark red vein of felspar, faces the south, and the same, continuing round a very sharply denned angle to the west, also faces the Atlantic. " This latter surmounts a dangerously slippery, steeply sloping under-cliif or pedestal. The entire summit, sloping and rounded towards the east side to within 50 or 60 feet of the water, is densely populated by Gannets; and on the north-west side they are equally numerous upon certain broad shelves, where the rock has broken away apparently, in large horizontal masses great steps of a giant stair ! The isolated portions at the ends also are covered with the birds to even lower elevations above the sea, but on the west side, where it is more precipitous and a smoother rock, there is very little bird life. The colour of the whole is very fine ; the top, snowy- white with birds and whitewash ; lined across here and there with small black streaks, where the perpendicular facets of the stair, or step-like ledges, occur ; the lower portions all around dark with the action of the waves and spray and adhering tangles ; the south and west faces of mural precipice as already mentioned of an almost glaucous green or grey, and almost lustrous surface, with the intersecting bands of dark red felspar just below the snowy summit ; contrasts of colour by no means common among our islets of the sea. Moreover, the snowy masses of the adult Gannet companies are ' picked out ' quite strikingly, and accentuated by the dark jackets of the younger birds, and by the crevices holding shelves of sober-coloured Guillemots and Kazorbills. We had a particularly fine light upon the rock for the camera, and got good chances of views on all sides, notwith- standing the high and deep heave of the Atlantic swell. " We noticed that a very much larger percentage of immature birds occupy the Stack than we have ever observed elsewhere at any British haunt of the Gannet." 48 STACK AND SKERRY. As far back as A.D. 1400, these islands, and probably also North Konay and North Barray of the Hebrideaii group were known to the Norsemen, and used by the Orkney Earls as a seal and egg- preserve ; and even yet, when occasion offers, boats from Strom- ness, and Tongue in Sutherland, go and harry them for eggs, as was the case this year (1890), when something like one hundred dozen of eggs were taken and sold in Stromness. Since the foregoing was written Professor Newton has visited Stack, and, in a letter to us, he also remarks on the large number of immature Gannets, a much larger percentage than is generally seen in other more visited localities, and this he ascribes to the same cause as ourselves, viz., from the eggs being less frequently taken, and the birds being less frequently disturbed. THE PENTLAND SKEBRJES. ALTHOUGH we have described these islands in a former work, 1 still they really belong to the Orkneys, being included in the parish of S. Eonaldsay. In any case, however, a book on the Orkney avi- fauna would be incomplete without a mention of these well-known " Skerries." Lying as they do in the course of one of the most famous migration lines in Scotland, many birds occur there almost commonly, which, as visitants to the islands themselves, are decidedly rare ; and it may well be, that owing to the attraction of these lights, Orkney is indebted for many records of the rarer species, which, without this attraction, would pass on. Other lighthouses there are in Orkney, which have contributed their quota to the Migration Eeports issued for several years back by the committee formed for collecting these facts ; but the Pentland Skerries are facile princeps, being, we believe, scarcely second in importance to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. We hope from this, however, our readers will quite understand that it is not from the mere fact of there being lights on the Skerries that birds are drawn out of their line of flight by them, or that such lights placed vaguely anywhere would give such good results ; it is because these lights are in the course of the main fly-line over Orkney, which line is concentrated by the cliffs on each side of the Pentland Firth, that we have such wonderful results. To go into the whole general subject of migration is not necessary here ; there is quite enough to be said about the area under consideration. 1 A Vertebrate Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness, and West Gromarty, 8vo, 1887. D 50 THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. It will be seen from our list that already some birds which were at one time quite scarce in the islands are now getting commoner. A species may fly over a certain area for years on migration, and, there being nothing to attract it either for food or breeding purposes, it will naturally pass on without a halt, unless driven to do so by stress of weather. Should, however, any part of our area be so altered by art or nature as to become suit- able for that species, during one of its involuntary visits the bird might be more inclined to linger, and eventually, though not all at once, become a breeding species. From the foregoing we think we may safely say in regard to the distribution of birds during migration, as opposed to their distribution at other times, that the former on their fixed and well-known fly -lines indicate future breeding areas, if the places become so altered at any time as to suit the species. We trust this will explain to a certain extent the changes that are now going on in the Orcadian avi-fauna, as regards the increase of some birds. Though the fact is now well known to most ornithologists, that nearly all the birds in our islands are to a certain extent migratory, this may possibly be news to many of our Orcadian friends. In some instances this may be more easily seen in those islands than in many other parts of Scotland. Take, for example, the Chaf- finch, a bird that is seen in most parts of Scotland the whole year round, and where, for that reason, its migratory habits might be easily overlooked ; yet in the Orkneys, though breeding in a few rare instances, in winter it is, in many places, almost a common bird. The autumn migration seems always vaster and denser to the ordinary observer than the spring migration, and there are several reasons which will readily account for this : First, For every pair of birds which pass north in spring, which are not barren, or which do not have their eggs or young destroyed, we may say from four to ten more come south in autumn. Second, In autumn and winter the areas where food-supplies are obtainable by species are more restricted, and so the birds, especially those that are most noticeable during migration, their THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. 51 numbers now vastly increased by the addition of their young, are collected into a smaller area. Third, Fogs are more prevalent at that time of year, and these seem to bewilder the birds, which are thus brought down from their great migratory fly-lines, which are often very high in the air, to a much lower level. In spring, on the other hand, birds do not appear to come in such rushes ; they then almost invariably migrate by night, and, as the weather is generally finer, do not fly so low. Were the Skerries rather larger, with a more broken surface, and especially if they possessed a small plantation, however stunted, no doubt the returns of warblers would be much greater ; as it is, there is no inducement for these latter birds to remain, once the daylight returns. It can easily be understood why the Migration Keturns from these places vary so much year by year, the wind and weather having much to do with it. Birds like a wind a point or two forward of the beam to cross with, i.e. on the shoulder, and they dislike a following wind, as that disarranges their feathers and their tails (or steering gear), and blows them helplessly about. But, at the same time, this stern- wind is the one most favourable to ornithological observation on our coasts. When birds travel with a gentle wind on the shoulder (i.e. near the wind, like a ship), they are often least seen ; but should the wind shift after they have started, dead ahead, or, equally bad, dead astern, the first landing-place and shelter is crammed with them, and then it is that so many rarities turn up. When the night is clear, and the wind and weather favourable, birds travel at a great height, and are thus less attracted by lights, and pass on ; but a hazy night, with a strong wind from the east and south-east, causes them to lose their way ; they thus lower their flight, and are attracted by the strong rays of the light- houses, and such nights give us the best-filled schedules. However, we need not pursue this subject further. All those who wish to study migration should read the reports published by the committee before mentioned. Of these there are nine, begin- 52 THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. ning in 1879, and ending in 1887, and all the species are there entered, with date and place, as far as they could be identi- fied. We will now proceed to mention those birds that occur on migration at the Pentland Skerries, and at any other lighthouse on the islands from which we have any returns of interest. Where no lighthouse is actually mentioned, the Pentland Skerries must be understood. The best and simplest plan will be to take each family in order, and make our notes as concise as possible, omitting, how- ever, the water-birds as being presently of less interest. Turdidce. The rarest of these birds are the Missel-Thrush and Ring-Ouzel. Missel-Thrushes were seen at North Ronaldsay at the end of September 1882, and these birds have also been re- corded from there in January. On the Pentland Skerries one was seen for the first time on April 1st, 1888, and another on March 25th, 1889, marked " very rare," by Mr. Gilmour, the assistant light- keeper, who says he has only seen these birds once or twice before. Ring-Ouzels are seen mostly on spring migrations ; one was seen as late as May 17th. In April 1886 there was a rush, but this is rare; they are generally in smaller lots. They are not so com- mon in the autumn. The other migrants are Fieldfares, Redwings, Thrushes, and Blackbirds ; the latter rarely strike the light, and are perhaps the rarest. The greatest " rush " of these species takes place about the middle of October, and up to the first week of November, varying, no doubt, according to the wind and other causes. Field- fares return in greatest numbers in the end of April and the first week or ten days of May, but Redwings and Thrushes are remark- able for their scarcity in the spring records. An odd Thrush is also occasionally seen in July. Blackbirds and Thrushes occur pretty frequently in September, which, too, seems to be the most usual month for the Ring-Ouzels. Saxicolince. Wheatears arrive in greatest numbers about the first week of April, and occasionally in rushes, as at the Pentland THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. 53 Skerries on April 6th, 1884, and again at N. Eonaldsay on April 4th, 1885. They seem to be rarer on the return journey; we have only a few notes of them in the schedules for autumn. Whinchats (one reported in March 1887, and again in March 1889) occur every spring, but are rare ; also Stonechats, though they are not common either, and are probably as much seen in the other islands as on migration ; they are, however, very local. Kedstarts are generally rare. They come about the middle of May (May 17th, 1888, abundant) ; earliest, April 29 ; at times much more numerous in autumn, as in September 10th and 12th, 1889 ; seen as early as August 14th. The Black Kedstart has occurred twice, once on March 31st, 1884, and again on April 24th, 1889. Sylviince. Eobins occur on both migrations ; they are as a rule more numerous in spring, when at times they are very abundant, as on April 19th, 1886, and April 14th, 1889. They occasionally remain during the winter. The Whitethroat (?) has only occurred once or twice in spring. The Blackcap seems only to have been recorded once, in October 1888. Phylloscopince. Goldcrests do not figure very largely in the schedules, but occur on both migrations ; they are principally seen in the autumn, once as early as September 3d. Willow Wren. It seems strange there is no return of this very common warbler, but our excellent correspondents may have included them either under " Titmice " or " Whitethroats." It is remarkable that there should be no record of the migra- tion of the Sedge Warbler, as this is one of the commonest warblers in the islands. Accentoridce. The Hedge-sparrow is recorded once or twice in April ; in one instance with the note " not very common." They seem to be still rarer in the autumn. Paridce. Though " Titmice " are recorded in several instances it seems probable that other species are meant, most likely some of the smaller warblers, judging from the description given and the usual dates of arrival, May. All true Tits are excessively rare in Orkney. 54 THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. Troglodytidce. Common Wren, spring and late autumn ; some- times in considerable numbers in latter season; seen as late as December, and may remain at times through the winter. Motadllidce. The Pied Wagtail is common on both migrations, sometimes being seen in March, and the bulk departing in Septem- ber; observed the second week in May. There seems to b& no record of yellow wagtails. The Grey-headed Yellow Wagtail has been twice observed, and once shot by Mr. Gilmour; the first occasion was on May 19th, 1888 when the bird was killed ; the second time was on May 3d, 1889. Pipits are recorded only in three years, 1881, 1882, and 1887, and then only in autumn. A rush of Eock Pipits was reported from N. Eonaldsay on September 4th, 1885, which remained throughout the winter (but these might be residents). Laniidce. A Eed-backed Shrike was obtained on May 19th, 1888 (see under Species), and this appears to be the only record of shrikes we have. Micscicapidce. The Pied Flycatcher is very numerous at times, more so on the spring migration in the month of May, when, in 1885, from the 2d to the 24th, great numbers were seen ; numbers were seen again in autumn of the same year. Their numbers are very fluctuating, or at least they are not observed in great quantities every year. In 1888 and 1889 there were no spring returns at all, and only two in autumn, one in September of each year. Spotted Flycatchers are first recorded on May 16th, 1888, after which they seem to have become more numerous ; this is the only notice we have ; none for autumn. They are very rare in Orkney. Sometimes the species are named in the schedules ; at other times the word " Flycatcher " is used. Under this heading they appear almost every year in both spring and autumn. We have tried to separate the records, as far as possible, of the two species. Hirundinidce. Swallows, Martins, and Sand-Martins are generally comprehended under the term " Swallows." The second fortnight of May is their usual time of appearing in the greatest THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. 55 numbers, but they occur also in June. They begin to return as early as the second week in August, the last being seen as late as October. Fringillidce. Amongst this family are included Greenfinches, an occasional House-Sparrow, Chaffinches, Bramblings, and Linnets, the latter most likely including Common Linnets, Kedpolls, and Twites. In spring finches move as early as February, and, in fact, Linnets are recorded more or less throughout the year. Green- finches were observed on January 1st, 1888, and a Kedpoll on March 10th of the same year. Bramblings appear in April, but are rare ; Mr. Gilmour identified them by their white rumps. Some were seen again on October 18th, 1889; wind strong from the south, and weather hazy. Chaffinches occur as early as February, and through March and April, as late as May, at which date. Greenfinches were observed. Chaffinches are seen in great numbers at times at the end of October, and as late as the end of November. Sparrows are only occasional visitants. Five were seen on May 29th, 1888, but at Auskerry, in May 1883, a flock was seen, as also a Brambling, Chaffinch, and Greenfinch about the same date. A sparrow seen at the Pentland Skerries on May 12th, 1889, may have been a Tree-Sparrow, as it had much white about the head. LoxiincB. Crossbills were seen on July 9th, 1888. There was a great migration of these birds throughout the north that year. No other entry of these birds occurs. Emberizince. Common Bunting, Yellowhammer, Eeed Bunting, and Snow Bunting. Common Buntings have been seen in January, but in April and May are most abundant ; not common in autumn. Yellowhammers are occasional in March and April, ra.re or absent in autumn. Reed Buntings occur regularly in May and October. Snow Buntings are abundant at times in October and November, but sometimes as early as September 17th, and they have been seen as late as May 1st. Alaudidce. There are a few records of Skylarks in spring, sometimes as early as February 9th, continuing up to April ; return begins in September, and continues at times up to December. Occasionally come in rushes, as at N. Ronaldsay in October 1885. 56 THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. Sturmdce. Starlings are resident on the Skerries ; they fluctuate in numbers, which may be due to merely local move- ments. But in July 1883 there was a great continuous migra- tion at Auskerry. Corwdce. Jackdaws, Hooded Crows, Kooks, and Ravens. All these are resident in the islands, and breed, so no doubt many of the migration reports refer to local movements. Jackdaws occur continually in our schedule for February and March 1889, but as they breed in S. Ronaldsay this is not to be wondered at. In fact there is scarcely a month in which Corvidae, generally either Eooks or Jackdaws, do not figure. Ravens are very rare, and Grey Crows by no means common, as the actual numbers seen are so often mentioned in the schedules. This would appear as if the Orkneys were outside the great stream of these latter birds, which, farther south, come to us in such masses. Cypselidce. Swifts are more often seen in autumn than spring, but at Auskerry flocks were seen on May 1st, 1885, with this note on the schedule : " rarely seen until the middle of June." Picidce.Two records only occur, both in autumn, of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. Guculidce. There is not a single record occurs of Cuckoos. Strigidce. The Short-eared Owl is reported to visit Auskerry annually in May. A grey owl is reported from the Pentland Skerries now and then in autumn; once on May 3d, 1889. A Long-eared Owl on November 17th, 1888. Falconidce. Hawks occur in most of the schedules, but none in 1888 or 1889. Ardeidce. Common Heron seen most months, but never in any quantity. Columbidce. Rock-Doves are occasionally seen, but there are only two records of Wood- Pigeons, viz., June 18th and October 7th of 1886. Pterodidce. For Sand-Grouse, see under the species. The Pentland Skerries was one of the places where they were earliest seen, viz., May 17th, 1888. Eallidce. The Corn-Crake appears regularly in May, and nests THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. 57 on the Skerries ; autumn records are rare. When they do occur the middle of September is about the last date. A young bird on one occasion, 1884, remained all winter. Charadriidce. Golden Plovers, Einged Plovers, Lapwings, Turn- stones, and Oyster-catchers, all figure in the schedules, but many of these may only locally migrate, especially as now Lapwings are inclined to stay in increasing numbers all winter. Golden Plovers are recorded in February, April, July (rare at this date), August, September, and October. At Auskerry flocks were seen on May 15th, 1883, all day in large numbers. From N. Konaldsay, Golden Plovers are often recorded in August, and many remain there all winter. August seems the busiest month all round for Golden Plovers. Ringed Plovers: records of no great interest; they are constantly occurring, and breed there. Lapwings : flocks in February and March, and again in Septem- ber ; rare in October ; indeed, not common during any of the other months, but a pair or two nest on the island. Turnstones remain all winter, but Oyster-catchers are mostly seen in end of February and March, and again in September. Scolopacidce. Woodcocks are regularly noted in the schedules, but we seem to have few spring records in February, March, and April. In autumn they occur regularly, at times in rushes, not only here, but at N. Eonaldsay, 1884 being a very good season for them. The "rush" comes about 15th to 20th of October. Com- mon Snipe, very few and unimportant entries, with one exception, viz., in February 1885 : "the first was seen on the 16th, and on the 19th a large number all day on the island, where they bred for the first time in 1888." A Jack Snipe was seen on July 4, 1884, a very unusual date. Dunlins generally arrive at the end of April or beginning of May ; they breed on the island. Purple Sandpipers are mentioned, but very rarely, and only in winter. Eedshanks are mentioned, but their movements are of no great interest. Whimbrels, no record. Curlews occur in the schedules in every month in the year ; perhaps rarest in April and May, but a flock is reported in June (1889). Many of these must be non-breeding 58 THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. birds, as they breed only rarely in Orkney. They seein least common in July. There seems to be only one real rush of waders generally reported, and that was in September 1883, when great flocks of " Sandpipers " flew into the rays of the light one night at 9 P.M. ; light east-north-east wind with fog. This rush seems to have occurred also in October and November up to December 12th. There are one or two notes of interest in relation to the sea-birds, such as that on the 22d of February 1889, viz.: "Guillemots in great numbers were seen flying east, and Razorbills, a good number, were fishing about the island." Puffins arrive about April 8, arid leave on or about August 15. Terns arrive about May 10th, but are only seen about their breeding-grounds in the mornings, until they begin to breed. One year the terns left the Skerries on July 16th, which Mr. Gilmour accounted for by their being harried by some fishermen ; for eight years previously they had always taken their young out, but on this occasion not one was hatched. As showing the variety of birds that may be found there on a good migration day in spring, we note that on May 17th, 1888, Mr. Gilmour recorded in his schedule for that date the following species : Redstarts numerous, more females than males ; King- Ouzels ; Flycatchers (species not mentioned) ; Black-headed Bunt- ings ; Whinchats ; Wagtails (Pied) ; Common Buntings, and Red- breasts. This same May the Grey-headed Yellow Wagtail and Eed-backed Shrike were obtained. Mr. Gilmour informs us that few birds strike the lantern in spring to those which do so in the autumn ; at times moths are abundant at the light in the latter season. We must now conclude our chapter on the Pentland Skerries and the Migration Keports. We feel we have by no means done full justice to the excellent and interesting schedules sent in by the various lighthouse-keepers, but to do that would be far too long a business for this work. We trust, however, that we have written enough to create a renewed interest in the minds of Orcadian THE PENTLAND SKERRIES. 59 naturalists, and that this may bring forth fruit in the discovery of species yet unrecorded from their islands, which may turn up at these two most interesting times of the year spring and autumn. It may not be uninteresting to note that in 1804 the Lesser Black-backed Gull and Eider Duck were found breeding on the Pentland Skerries by a Mr. Simmonds, when on a tour round the northern lighthouses with Eobert Stevenson, the eminent engineer. Class 1. MAMMALIA. Sub-class MONODELPHIA. Order CHIROPTERA. Sub-order MICROCHIROPTEEA. Family VESPERTILIONnXE. Vesperugo pipistrellus (Schreb.). Pipistrelle. We have very few notes of bats at all, but Mr. Moodie-Heddle sends us two instances of their occurrence. One was seen in the evening flying about the rigging of a vessel lying off Fara, in the South Isles, in either 1834 or 1835. In the other case, one or more haunted a plantation at Melsetter in the summer of 1879. We have entered these notices under this species, as, although none were secured, they are more likely to belong to this, which is the common northern form, than any other. Mr. Reid also saw a bat caught at Kirkwall in 1861, but does not name the species. Mr. Eanken says he has seen "bats" ten or twelve times in Orkney, always in the neighbourhood of his garden, or of the Cathedral at Kirkwall. Mr. Harvey mentions having seen what he took to be a bird, but which was evidently, from his description, a bat, in July and August of the three successive years from 1884 to 1886, in Sanday. Vesperugo noctula (Schreb.). Noctule. The late Mr. Heddle had a note of one captured at S. Eonaldsay, and preserved by the Eev. J. Gerard, but this probably relates to the American bat described further on. 62 MAMMALS. Vespertilio murinus, Schreb. Mouse-coloured Bat The late Mr. Heddle mentions that he saw bats in Orkney, of two species, and his son, Mr. Moodie-Heddle, records this species as occurring in Walls and Sanday. Vespertilio, sp. 11 Occurrence of a Foreign Bat in Orkney. About September 1847 a bat was caught by some people digging potatoes in the island of South Ronaldsay, and it was kept alive for some weeks on sugar and water, I believe. It was considered a very great curiosity then, though any bat would have been equally so. I obtained the kind permission of the Eev. John Gerard to take it to London for examination. Mr. Waterhouse informs me that Mr. Gray [i.e. the late Dr. J. E. Gray] believes it to be a large specimen of Vespertilio pruinosus. It is a native of North America. Its general appearance is not unlike the Noctule. The general colour may be called badger-like. A bat is a very likely animal to be brought in a ship : insects, we know, are brought from America to Liverpool in great plenty." John Wolley, 3 Roxburgh Terrace, Edinburgh, November 16, 1848 (Zoologist, 1849, p. 2343.) 1 " Occurrence of a Foreign Bat in Orkney. Mr. Newman in the Preface to the volume of the Zoologist for 1 849 refers to my paper with the above heading (Zool. 2343). He seems to infer that it was rather * slow ' of me not to seize so plausible a pretext for adding a new bat to the British list. Mr. , Mr. , and Mr. are men of far better spirit ; they have shown some most exotic-looking birds to be truly British. But as Mr. Newman says that I ' do not attempt to account for its pre- sence in the Orkneys, and that the subject requires more minute investigation,' I will now endeavour to say a little more about it than I did in my first communication. I grant that the 1 Tom. cit. Preface, p. vi : "In Mammalia we have the occurrence of a new Bat, supposed to be Vespertilio pruinosus ; it was caught by some people digging potatoes in the island of South Ronaldsay, and Mr. Wolley, the gentleman who communicated the fact (Zool. 2343), seems content to regard the species as purely North American, although he does not attempt to account for its presence in the Orkneys. The subject requires more minute investigation. . . ." Edward Newman, 9 Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate, Nov. 11, 1849. MAMMALS. 63 subject requires further investigation, and such I intended to have given it during a second visit this summer, by ascer- taining positively whether any bats are constant inhabitants of the Orkneys, and, if so, of what species; but I was unfor- tunately only there a few days, and in such weather as no bats could be expected to withstand. If I did not attempt to account for the presence of this bat, I certainly hinted at my views on the matter by saying that a bat is a very likely animal to be brought in a ship, and by observing that this specimen was looked upon as a very great curiosity, as any bat would have been. Of the circumstances of its discovery I had undoubted evidence. The people who found it were as much astonished and frightened at it as Mr. Gerard was surprised to see it ; and this gentleman preserved it with great care, as a thing of most unusual occurrence, though he did not know that it was otherwise than a common bat. I may say that he is now some years past eighty, and has all his life been an observer of nature as exhibited in the Orkney Islands, and especially in South Eonaldsay. This country, entirely destitute of trees, and so exposed to every wind, seems very ill adapted for the constant residence of any species of bat ; and therefore these considerations, with the evidence of the people, at once inclined me to believe it was an accidental visitant. I was told at the British Museum that the characters I had observed the hairiness of the upper side of the interfemoral membrane, and the yellowish band of hair on the wing underneath the principal bones were peculiar to a family of American bats, called, from the first circumstance, Lasinores, and on my bat (for it has since been very kindly presented to me by Mr. Gerard) being compared with those in the Museum, it was attributed to the species called pruinosus, although considerably larger than the specimens in the collection, and it may perhaps be a nearly allied species. Had any species of the group been known to inhabit Europe I should have had better hopes of finding that this bat was really indigenous to the north of Britain. All things considered, I have little doubt it was brought by one of the very numerous vessels which pass between South Eonaldsay and John o' Groat's from various parts of the world, or which lie up in the far-famed roadstead, 64 MAMMALS. the Long Roads ( 1 Hope), of which South Ronaldsay forms the eastern breakwater. Very many exotic insects are introduced by vessels at Liverpool and other sea-ports, and bats can hide in a corner, and do without food in cold weather almost as well as an insect. I hope the reasons I have now stated will serve to explain my contentment in looking upon this bat as an intruder." John Wolley, Edinburgh, December 15, 1849. 1 N.B. Vespertilio pruinosus is recorded by Hurdis as an autumnal straggler to Bermuda. J. M. Jones, The Naturalist in Bermuda, p. 13 (London, 1859). For the whole of this article we are indebted to Professor Newton, who kindly took the trouble to work out the history of the specimen. Order INSECTIVORA. Family ERINACEIDJE. Erinaceus europaeus, L. Hedgehog. Mr. Irvine-Fortescue was told that a few Hedgehogs were brought to Orkney by the sons of Dr. Logic, minister of Dirleton, and turned out about 1870. There seems to be no word of them since. Family SORIOIDJE. Sorex tetragon urus, Herman. Common Shrew. Orc.=Rone Mouse (J. G. M.-H.). Sheer-Mouse (B. and H.). Messrs. Baikie and Heddle consider this species as not very numerous, but the late Mr. J. G. Heddle found it common in Walls. Mr. Irvine-Fortescue has seen dead Shrews occasionally about Swanbister, and has also seen and heard them in Hoy. 1 Tom. cit. 2813, 2814. [" A very minute description of the Ronaldsay specimen is given by J. Wolley, which occupies nearly two pages. The specimen is sup- posed to be in the Cambridge Museum, but Wolley seems to have had others for comparison, and, as none appear to have been labelled, the Orkney specimen cannot easily be picked out now.] MAMMALS. 65 Crossopus fodiens (Pall). Water Shrew. [We have no further record of this species beyond the one men- tioned by Messrs. Baikie and Heddle as having been killed in Walls in 1847.] Section AECTOIDEA. Family MUSTELID^. Lutra vulgaris, Erxl. Otter. The Otter is the only species of this genus found in the Orkneys. Otters are yet abundant in most of the islands, the large extent of seaboard giving them great facilities for escaping observation and for concealment. In the early spring they wander much up and down the inland streams, and make regular roads in cutting off corners from one pool to another. This, and the green mounds on which they leave their droppings, which latter always seem very small for the size of the animal, betray their presence any- where, although the animals themselves are rarely seen. The greater part of the year they keep to the sea-coast, where they live on fish, especially flounders, and, as we are informed, on ducks and rabbits. Mr. Moodie-Heddle tells us that they always leave the stomach of any fish they eat. The same gentleman also says : "I have killed many Otters, and had the young ones to about a year old. They are playful and easily tamed, and quite as good-tempered as an average young dog. They show more activity early in the morning, and again in the evening, than at mid-day. The danger of losing them in fostering is in their getting milk beginning to turn sour; this with them, as with young seals, brings on diarrhoea, which is usually fatal. I can usually find an Otter, if about, and have had as many as thirty skins at one time." Mr. W. Harvey writes us from Sanday that a few years ago an Otter " made her habitation and brought forth her young within 150 yards of this (his) house, entering at the mouth of a drain" (in lit. January 2, 1888). The skins of those Otters that frequent the sea and sea-shore E 66 MAMMALS. are better and darker than those that frequent more inland situations. Otters are said to breed twice a year in Orkney, in spring and autumn, and to bring forth from two to five young. Very few otter-skins ever appeared among the exports from Orkney. In 1804 there were three, and in 1805 there were nine. Sub-order PINNIPEDIA. Family TRIOHECHID^. Trichechus rosmarus, L. Walrus. Although we might reasonably presume that the Walrus was of considerably more frequent occurrence in former years, when the animals themselves were abundant in their more natural habitat, we seem to have no records to prove this. The first mentioned by Baikie and Heddle was killed in Eday in 1825, and another is reported to have been seen in Hoy Sound in 1827. Professor Heddle of St. Andrews told Harvie-Brown that he himself saw an adult and young Walrus in 1849 or 1850 off the coast of the parish of Walls : and in a copy of Baikie and Heddle containing some MS. notes by one of the authors R. Heddle which we have lately had the pleasure of examining, there is this statement : "that a Walrus was seen off Eday in 1855, and (another) in the Pentland Firth off Waas, 1 in 1856." In an extract from an article in Hardwicke's Science Gossip on the Seals and Whales of the British Isles, Dr. Brown states that two Walruses were seen in 1857, one in Orkney and the other in Shetland. Mr. Moodie-Heddle tells us that there is an instance of a Walrus occurring at Longhope, not mentioned by Baikie and Heddle. " In this case it annoyed people going to church by putting its tusks over the gunwale of the boat ! ! I saw one just outside the surf during a westerly gale about 1863-4, at Hawick, near Longhope. The tusks were quite visible, but not very large." " Whale-ships have several times come into Longhope of recent years, with young Walruses on board." It seems to us that this last sentence may account for one 1 Waas = Walls. MAMMALS. 67 or two of the Walruses seen in Orkney, more especially in the case of the one just mentioned as being so familiar. Family PHOCID-ffi. Phoca vitulina, L. Common Seal, Oic.=Sel/cie. Low speaks to the abundance of seals in the Pightland (Pentland) Firth, and in his Fauna Orcadensis, p. 18, says: "Seals seem to be subject to a plague or murrain. About four years ago they drove ashore around our coasts in scores." This "murrain" seems to have occurred twice since then, once in 1836, and again in 1869 or 1870, since which time certain bays have been quite deserted by seals. In the old Statistical Account, 1797, vol. xix. p. 398, there is a description given of a seal-fishery formerly held at the " Barrel of Butter," * and the seals there caught would most probably be of this species; at the present time seals are rarely seen in that neighbourhood. Amongst the Orkney exports for 1801 appear 12 seal-skins; in 1802 there were 373, and in 1803, 14 only. It is just possible that these may have been the last of the fishery on the Barrel of Butter. Mr. Moodie-Heddle sends us the following very interesting notes : "Seals are still common in the South Isles, though their haunts have somewhat changed since 'Baikie and Heddle* was published. Ten years ago they were nearly extinct here (in the island of Hoy), being reduced to three or four. I pre- served them near Melsetter, and they got so tame that I could come within a few yards of them, and even handle the young ones. Since then they were getting too numerous, and killing so many sea-trout that we have had to slaughter a good many." " The Common Seal calls out very much before any markedly bad weather." "In places where they lie much ashore, and are constantly crawling over rough rocks, the nipples of the females seem to get painful, and they repulse the young when they attempt to 1 Barrel of Butter a small skerry lying in the middle of Scapa Flow. 68 MAMMALS. suck. Frequently the young ones on these occasions crawl up to the houses, and get fed with cow's milk, though, from inattention, they rarely survive." " On dissection of males of P. vitulina, I have several times been struck with the peculiarity of there appearing to be four or more testes." In answer to some questions we put to Mr. Moodie-Heddle on these notes we received the following answer : "The young seals were at a place where they were pre- served, but the incident has happened elsewhere. The last case when one was fed was two years ago ; but a young one was going about the beach neglected by its mother last summer (1887), and was more than once taken and put into the water near the other seals by the people. Another got into a crack in a rock, and had to be helped out by a man ; the mother remaining in the water close by. The young one referred to first was ultimately taken up here by a Mr. Curzon, who was collecting insects, to whom I gave it, but it took diarrhoea, and died about ten days after." " Seals know very soon when they are safe. I could get within 30 yards of some where preserved, whilst the same seals would not let me within 150 yards, when at another beach some miles off. They actually got so tame with us that I have known two young ones killed with stones by some navvies working on the road; and one, half-grown, picked up asleep, and taken into a ship's boat (it was floating asleep)" " They will stand a few shots, as long as none are killed, without much alarm ; but if one is killed near a rock they either desert it or are shy of it for some time. Seals not only leap before bad weather, but call out, making a strange wild sound at night in particular. They jump much, and pursue one another at the breeding season, and appear, in copulation, to thrash the water into foam." In 1883 we found this species of seal abundant at most of the skerries lying inside the islands between Kirkwall and Kou- say, and on one occasion counted as many as thirty heads up at one time near the Taing Skerry, which lies between Gairsay and Shapinsay. From being constantly fired at when ashore, MAMMALS. 69 they rarely venture to land on any of the larger islands now, keeping almost exclusively for that purpose to the before- mentioned skerries; three that we procured, all females, had small-shot buried in their blubber. As autumn approaches, and possibly on account of the young ones getting stronger, and more able to follow the mother, the seals congregate less together, and are to be seen more about the island shores. When in Orkney in 1888, Buckley saw the seals referred to by Mr, Moodie-Heddle, and they were wonderfully tame. He was told that it was only the habitues that were so tame, strange seals that often came to join this herd being very uneasy at the approach of any one. One day fifteen were counted at the stones, at another time twenty-three, the former number being the usual complement. "We saw many seals the same year at the "Grand" of Egilsay, a long narrow reef of rocks running out a long way to the east of the island ; we found them also numerous at Linga Holm, near Stronsay. Phoca hispida, Schreb. Ringed or Marble Seal. [Obs. We have no information about the occurrence of this seal in Orkney further than the bald statement by Messrs. Baikie and Heddle that one or two specimens have been obtained.] Phoca groenlandica, Fab. Greenland or Harp Seal. We have not heard of any more specimens of this species having been obtained here since Messrs. Baikie and Heddle wrote. As, however, it has occurred on different occasions on the Mainland of Scotland, both east and west, it is quite likely to have paid these islands a visit, and even been shot, without much atten- tion being paid to the fact. In a note just received from Mr. Moodie-Heddle, referring to some Great Grey Seals that were found dead, he says there was one he heard of that was marked exactly like a Greenland or Harp Seal, and was of large size : it had no head when found. This was in the winter of 1889-90. 70 MAMMALS. Halichaerus gryphus (Fabr.). Grey Seal. Qrc.=Selkie. It has now been pretty well decided that all the notices of P. barbata should really be referred to this species, and this is the course we have here adopted. Pitcairn, in his Retrospective View of the Scotch Fisheries^ 1787, makes mention of the great abundance of the seals at Stack and Skerry 1 "as the author has seen from 500 to 1000 Seals caught in little more than forty-eight hours' time, from a rock that lies about eight leagues to the westward of Hoymouth in Orkney, where there are great numbers of them, and in many other places thereabout." Vide p. 37. At p. 436, vol. xvi. of the old Statistical Account, 1795, there is mention made of a seal-fishery at Soulisgeir. A large sloop used to go there once a year about Martinmas, but since a fatal accident, which took place in November 1786, it had been given up. In 1792 thirty-six sealskins were sold at Stromness at 2s. 6d. each. The Grey Seal certainly is not common in the more sheltered firths about the Mainland, Rousay, Gairsay, and Shapinsay, as, during the time we were in Rousay (and we were constantly cruising about in a small boat, seeing plenty of the Common Seal), we could only identify the present species on two occasions. One of these occasions was at the west end of Viera, where a Grey Seal kept its head out of the water and its nose straight in the air for two or three minutes at a time between each submersion, and always appearing in the same spot. It is probable that the Grey Seal breeds in Sanday, as Mr. Harvey tells us that young seals with long shaggy whitish hair have been frequently found alive along the shores of that island, and that they are about 4 feet in length. Mr. Irvine- Fortescue was informed that a large seal is seen swimming into the caves round Stronsay, and he remarks that a few are usually to be seen about the South Isles also. Speaking of seals generally in Sanday, Mr. Harvey writes 1 Rocks lying about forty miles north-west of Hoy Head, much frequented by seals, and already described, vid. pp. 45-48. i MAMMALS. 71 us : "I have shot a good many seals of various colours and sizes, some a dusky red, some a dark mottled grey, a few very light grey, with streaks of white. One was a very old seal, nearly white, whose teeth were worn away, and drops of lead 1 had apparently been imbedded in his head and neck for years. The skin was very pretty, but the oil (? blubber) was scant and thin like grease. He measured 9 feet in length. " I have got Common Seals from 5 to 9 feet long, and Great Seals from 9 to 12 feet in length. About twenty-five years ago I observed one with the largest head I ever saw, about 200 yards from land. I struck him with a ball and wounded him. About a fortnight after, he was found ashore at Elsness by a farm servant, who afterwards informed me that the * selkie ' was as big as a large horse, and measured 15 feet long, and that he got about 12 gallons of oil from it." " The Great Seal used to be frequently killed on the * Selky ' skerry, lying north of the island of N. Eonaldsay; they are there called Orkenies." Harvie-Brown visited this skerry in July 1889, and saw several Grey Seals in the water, but none on shore, as some boats had just passed the skerry and disturbed them. Mr. Moodie-Heddle says that this last winter (1889-90) several Grey Seals came ashore, dead, on the Firth side of Hoy, along with multitudes of Cormorants, Auks, etc., apparently from want of food. The same gentleman has had the young of this species tame, and says they are very faithful and fond of following their owners about, but he does not consider them as intelligent as P. vitulina. Cystophora cristata (Erxl). Hooded Seal. [06s. Besides what Messrs. Baikie and Heddle say as to the reputed occurrence of the Hooded Seal in Kousay and Papa Westray, Mr. Moodie-Heddle's father mentioned that he once or twice saw what he took for this seal at a little distance. We prefer to keep this in brackets for the present, as, had a 1 Anglicd, shot. 72 MAMMALS. specimen of such a striking-looking beast been procured, it is more than likely that some special notice would have been taken of it.] CETACE^I. Obs. Mr. Moodie-Heddle says that there is still considerable mystery attaching to the species of whales obtained in Orkney. He is inclined to think that two species of high-finned Whales are confounded, as also two species of Cachalot. A large whale of close on 60 feet in length was ashore and nearly cap- tured at Longhope about 1880. This was evidently a Cachalot, but did not appear high or square-headed enough for Catodon macrocephalus. That our notes on whales are very imperfect we are well aware, but we have tried to make them as accurate as possible. Probably there is no class of mammals so little known to the ordinary naturalist as the Cetaceae. This of course arises from the extreme difficulty of studying them in their native haunts ; their comparative rarity, except certain species, and the incomplete view one gets of them in their natural element, render it exceedingly difficult to recognise them either there, or even when stranded on the beach. When a huge Rorqual is seen " blowing " the commotion caused thereby, resembling the ricochet of a cannon-ball out at sea that is perhaps put down as a " Tinner " if one of the party who sees this phenomenon knows anything at all of whales, but whether the rare Sibbald's, or the Lesser, or the Common species it is impossible to tell. Again, a lesser animal is seen to send up a much smaller jet. " There goes a Bottlenose," says one ; but how many species again are included in that extraordinary term ! Any small black animal showing its back here and there every now and then above the water is put down, and very often rightly, to a Porpoise, but how many would know that beast when lying dead before them ! And the word Dolphin is used pretty much in the same way. From their position, the Orkney Isles, with perhaps the exception of MAMMALS. 73 the Shetland Isles, present the greatest facilities of any part of Great Britain for studying the habits, or giving records of the capture of these, literally, monsters of the deep, though unless there be a naturalist on the spot one is more likely to hear how much oil, spermaceti, or whalebone a defunct whale affords, than of what species it is, or what are its measurements. Order CETACEA. Sub-order MYSTACOCETL Family BAL-fflNID^E. Balaena mysticetus (.). Greenland Whale. Low writes in his Fauna that, even in his time, this animal had, to a great extent, taken leave of our seas, as he supposed, on account of the increase in shipping and consequent disturbance. He says that several have come ashore of late years (i.e. subse- quent to 1770 or thereabouts), mentioning one in particular 40 feet long. This came ashore in Walls. Mr. Moodie-Heddle's father has left a note that this species is now very rare, those that occur being either weak or diseased animals. One was said to have been got at S. Konaldsay in 1828, but Mr. Cowan tells us he does not believe that the true Greenland Whale was ever seen in the Orkneys. Family BAKENOPTERIDJE. Megaptera longimana (Rudolph). Hump-backed Whale. Mr. Cowan says this species is rare in Orkney. We have no special record of any specimen. Balaenoptera musculus (.). Common Rorqual. Ore. = Firmer. This is probably the whale referred to by Low, which he says is seen most frequently in the autumn, when the sounds and seas 74 MAMMALS. are full of herring and mackerel. Several of our correspondents state that this is a common species, and Mr. Reid informs us that specimens from seventy to eighty feet in length have occasionally come ashore. One was got at Hunda in 1852 which was 62 feet in length. Mr. Irvine-Fortescue says this species is occasionally seen in Scapa Flow. He has never seen more than three together, and this only on one occasion. They appeared to be a family party, as one was much smaller than the others, and they were frequently seen during the whole of one summer. Balaenoptera sibbaldi (Gray). Sibbald's Rorqual. Mr. Moodie-Heddle says that a specimen that appeared to be of this species ran ashore at Longhope in either 1883 or 1884 : it was over 50 feet long, and the head seemed smaller than in C. inacrocephalus. Baleenoptera rostrata (Fair.'). Lesser Rorqual. Under this heading Mr. Irvine-Fortescue writes us as follows : "What I believe to be a specimen of this whale was picked up dead in Scapa Flow in the end of 1884, and brought to Waulk Mill Bay. I took the following measurements : Total length in a straight line from head to tail, 24 ft. From tail to front side of back fin, 8 ft. Breadth of tail, 6 ft. 8 in. Half the girth of the animal, 8 ft. (this would give 16 ft. as the girth). Fore flipper, 2 ft. 10 in. long, 1 ft. 10 in. girth, 11 in. broad. Twenty-seven corrugations or folds in half of belly (this would give fifty-four altogether). 12 ft. 5 in. from tail to the commencement of the folds. Dorsal fin, 1 ft. 3 in. high ; 11 in. broad at base. Whalebone about 14 in. long when longest; pale pinkish white or cream colour, except along the outer edges of the plates, which were dark-coloured." "The animal was a female, and contained a foetus about 6 ft. long, but this I did not see." "What I take to be this whale appears not unfrequently in Scapa Flow, singly and in twos and threes. " MAMMALS. 75 Sub-order ODONTOCETI. Family PHYSETERID^. Sub-family PHYSETEEIN^. Physeter macrocephalus, L. Sperm Whale. While Low says this species is often driven ashore, and instances one taken in Hoy Sound, later writers all concur as to its rarity, and this seems most likely, seeing that this species is more southerly in its range. Hyperoodon rostratum (Chemnitz). Beaked Whale. There can be no doubt whatever that, although we have received no actual record of the capture of this species from any of our correspondents, the Beaked Whale is a common animal at times round the coast. It is unfortunate that the name " Bottlenose " is applied in so comprehensive a manner, as it seems to include every cetacean smaller than a Rorqual. Family DELPHINID-2E. Sub-family BELUGIN^. Delphinapterus leucas (Pall.). White Whale. A White Whale was stranded at Auskerry in October 1845, after a gale of easterly wind (Bell. Brit. Quad., 2d ed.). We have no further record to add to this. Sub-family DELPHININJ2. Orca gladiator (Lac6p.). Killer. Grampus. Low mentions this species as found in great numbers on all the coasts, and at certain times at the mouth of Hoy Sound. 76 MAMMALS. Messrs. Baikie and Heddle consider it to be commoner during the herring season than at other times, which is very probable, from the greater abundance of food. Mr. Moodie-Heddle says the Grampus is not very common near land, but is oftener seen out at sea. On July the 8th, 1890, not very far from the entrance to Scrabster Bay, we saw from the deck of the yatch six or more of what we took to be specimens of this species. They passed close under our keel, and were visible for a considerable time, both before and after this dive downwards. They swam near the surface, frequently flinging themselves perpendicularly out of water, the whole length of the body from head to tail being visible, and continuing this exhibition as far as our vision could follow their motions, all following nearly the same track, in a smooth sea. The very white appearance of the under parts- was strikingly apparent both beneath the water and when springing out of it. Globicephalus melas (Trail). Pilot Whale. Orc.=Bottlenose. A common species, occuring in very large herds at times, rarely under 100, and as high as 500 individuals. From the comparative ease with which they are driven ashore arises their trivial name of " caing," or driving. Often this word is spelt with an apostrophe, thus, "ca'ing," but this is a mistake, as, with the apostrophe, it means " calling," which is altogether misleading. As early as 1691, Wallace (2d ed.) mentions 114 of these whales as driven ashore near Kairston, on the Mainland, and since then, so common is the practice, that it is needless to give every individual case ; but, as showing their value, we may mention that about August 1839, 195 of these creatures were secured off Flotta, and fetched a total of 500, 12s. 6d. Mr. Moodie-Heddle informs us that "they breed at all seasons. I have taken full-grown young, and a foetus of a few MAMMALS. 77 inches long, out of whales in the same school, in July. When many have to calve, they seek sheltered water for the purpose. I once saw Scapa Flow full, on such an occasion many thousands, extending for miles." " The Caing Whale is fond of following a leader, and, in absence of any 'flecked' whale, follows usually some old male of its own species, as if trusting to his age and experience ; even if he be wounded and runs on shore they follow. " They seem to see well in the air, as I have noticed them rise up as if ' treading water,' and take a prolonged and steady look at a boat, when 15 or 20 yards off only," The Caing Whale feeds on cuttle-fish. In the stomachs of some run ashore in November 1889 Mr. Irvine-Fortescue found handfuls of the beaks of these creatures. They only appear in Scapa Flow occasionally, several years frequently passing without a whale-hunt taking place. Of those run ashore on the occasion last referred to, in Weethick, on the east side of Inganess Bay, Mr. Irvine-Fortescue found the largest bull measured 21 ft.; the female was considerably less. The smallest female containing a foetus was 14 ft. Two foetuses measured 6 ft. each, and another born on the beach was also 6ft. The same gentleman also remarks that he never heard one of these whales make the slightest cry, but some of the men who were killing them last November (1889), said that when they were being killed " some cried like pigs, and others bogled," i.e. bellowed. Phocaena communis, F. Cuv. Porpoise, Common in summer and autumn. Delphinus acutus (/. E. Gray). White-sided Dolphin. Ore. = Flecked or Flaked Whale (J. G. M.-H.). Mr. Moodie-Heddle has kindly sent us a very good drawing, description, and measurements of one of these animals, which 78 MAMMALS. were taken from one, evidently a male, killed at Scapa, in 1858. The measurements correspond iii all respects with those given in Bell's Brit. Quad. (p. 471, 2d ed.), which were taken by Dr. Duguid from one killed at the same time and place, as we show further on. They are not very rare animals, as Mr. Moodie-Heddle has seen many, and three ran ashore at Melsetter at one time, in 1886. The local name for this species is the Flaked or Flecked Whale, probably from its markings, and we think the following quotation from one of Mr. Moodie-Heddle's letters will be of interest : ft When the Flaked (i.e. flecked) Whales, as the people call D. tursio (ID. acutus) here, get among the herd of Caing Whales, the latter refuse to ' drive,' the Flecked ones always turning off shore as soon as the water shoals, and the Caing Whales following them." The following very accurate description is from one taken at the time and place above stated : " Dark mark round eye, f in. wide; eye small, pupil crescentic. The blow-hole is situated between the eyes; crescentic, the concave side towards the snout, depressed. An external auditory meatus is situated superior and posterior to the eyes, over the anterior edge of pectoral fin, and would allow a No. 1 pellet of shot to pass through. " The head sharp and beaked, the lower jaw a little longer than the upper. Teeth |-^| largest in the middle of each jaw, and gradually diminishing in size towards each side. No teeth at symphyses of each jaw for the space of an inch. Teeth conical, slightly recurved and incurved at back, straight in front; those in lower jaw most incurved, while those in the upper point forward. Palate smooth and spotted. Tongue not free, but frenum being large admits of great movement ; black in centre, white at margin. At symphysis of lower jaw lip turned upward, and has two slight elevations, which fit into corresponding notches in upper lip. There is a regular prolabium in upper lip so as to give it a pointed appearance. Colour of back jet black ; long streak MAMMALS. 79 towards tail, of a dirty yellowish colour; sides dusky, with conspicuous oblong white streak along middle. Fins and tail black, except a small portion of under part of tail." For these measurements and description we are indebted to Mr. Moodie-Heddle. Delphinus tursio, Fair. Bottlenosed Dolphin. Mr. Irvine-Fortescue sends us the following notes of two Whales which were stranded alive inside Swaribister Pier, in September 1888. He was from home at the time, but a friend of his, Mr. Halcro, took the following measurements and description, which seem to refer them to this species : " Length, 8 ft. 6 in. ; diameter of bodies, 22 in. (this would give the girth about 5 ft. 6 in.) ; tail, 2 ft. broad ; dorsal fin, 13 in. high, about centre of back, i.e. about half-way between head and tail ; dentition, g-i-J." " The two were male and female. The species could probably still be determined from the skeleton." " This may be the species which I have observed occasionally among the herds of bottlenoses (Caing Whales). They appear to be about 5 ft. long or rather more, and paler in colour than the Caing Whales. The dorsal fin is higher in proportion to their size, and sharper-pointed." Delphinus albirostris (/. E. Gray). White-beaked Dolphin. We are indebted to Mr. Moodie-Heddle of Melsetter for the following measurements, and the drawing from which our engraving is taken, of a specimen of this species, which is now recorded from Orkney for the first time : Entire length, 9 ft. 1 in.; girth at fin, 5 ft. 4 in.; length of mouth, 10J in.; from snout to blow-hole, 1 ft. 2 in.; from blow-hole to dorsal fin, 2 ft. 9 in.; length of dorsal fin along curve, 2 ft. 2J in.; height, perpendicular, of fin, 1 ft. 2 in. ; length of pectoral fin, 1 ft. 8 in.; breadth of tail, 2 ft. 6 in.; dentition, |4g. 80 MAMMALS. Eyes and blow-hole in one line across, jected about 1 inch beyond the upper. The lower jaw pro- The upper snout, as far as the depression at forehead, and to the angle of the mouth, pure white ; also white from mouth to pectoral fin and on the belly ; two finely shaded whitish bands on each side ; other parts from a grey to purplish black. The teeth were conical, sharp, and bent inwards and back- wards. Tongue large, and of a livid colour. Blow-hole single, and a full crescent. The animal from which this description was taken was shot at Longhope on June 28th, 1853. When on shore, it respired deeply, this being heard at some distance ; it squeaked on being lanced, and had but little blubber. Seven or eight of these animals had frequented the shallow bay at the top of Longhope for some weeks before being chased. They were observed to swim with more rapidity than the porpoise, and rose higher out of the water. The drawing and description we sent up to Mr. Southwell, who kindly identified the animal for us. MAMMALS. 81 Order UNGULATA.