LEGISLATIVE PROTECTION FOR WILD BIRDS' EGGS 215 



stations of the Great Skua (Stercorarius catarrhactes) in the 

 British Isles are in Shetland. Here the nests are pillaged so 

 regularly and persistently by the inhabitants that in 1890 

 not a single chick was reared by the whole Foula colony, 

 and in 1891 practically all the eggs of the first laying were 

 taken. Fortunately the owners of the islands on which the 

 Great Skua nests have taken steps to protect the eggs as far 

 as possible. This praiseworthy intervention has already met 

 with a certain measure of success, for though Mr. Frank Traill, 

 in speaking of the nesting season at Foula this year (1892), 

 states that " apparently all the first laying of Bonxies' eggs 

 were taken, and part of the second," and says that in Kirk- 

 wall he saw a dozen Bonxies' eggs " from Foula this season " at 

 the modest price of half a sovereign apiece, he is able to add 

 that there were about sixty or seventy young ones this year. 



One ought not to leave the Shetlands without mentioning 

 the persecution of other rare birds which nest on these islands. 

 It is stated on good authority that extremely few pairs of 

 the Red -throated Diver (Coly mints septentrionalis) have got 

 off their young during late years. The Whimbrel (Numenius 

 pJiceopus], too, whose few nesting stations in the British Isles 

 are chiefly confined to Shetland, exists there in very limited 

 numbers ; and there are grave fears of the disappearance of 

 the Red-necked Phalarope (PJialaropus hyperboreus] from its 

 stations in the Shetlands. It is probable also that the 

 Black-throated Diver (Colymbus arcticus] nesting sparsely in 

 circumscribed areas on the mainland of Scotland, and in the 

 Hebrides, will share the same fate. Who can wonder when 

 collectors and dealers offer large prices for each egg which is 

 sent to them ? 



Again, the Little Tern (Sterna ininuta\ nesting colonies of 

 which exist on the Fifeshire and Banffshire coasts, will shortly 

 disappear altogether. This is inevitable, at least so far as 

 the Fifeshire colony is concerned, unless something can be 

 done to prevent the constant plunder of their nests. Parallel 

 cases mio;ht also be cited from the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire 



o 



coasts, where these birds are sadly persecuted, and where the 

 Arctic Tern (Sterna macrurd), and the Oyster-catcher (Hcema- 

 topus ostralegus), have practically ceased to nest, and the Ringed 

 Plover (sEgialitis hiaticula\ is much scarcer than formerly. 



