NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN THE SCOTTISH ISLANDS 5 



Skua. Though exceedingly tame they were not at all 

 pugnacious, even though I had a small dog with me. I 

 attribute this to the fact, that none of the eggs were as 

 yet hatched. The watcher's hut is peculiarly favourably 

 situated for defending his proteges, as within a few yards 

 he can practically survey the whole nesting area. On my 

 return a hen Wigeon flew round me, as if nesting on the 

 marshy ground between Loch Cliff and Burra Firth. Un- 

 fortunately, I was pressed for time and could not stay 

 to watch her. Thousands of Kittiwakes had collected at 

 the end of Loch Cliff. They were flying in one continuous 

 stream up Burra Firth, and I counted one hundred 

 pass me in less than a minute. In the afternoon I 

 left for Kirkwall, again seeing many Fulmars when out 

 at sea. 



June 12: I visited the island of Damsay, where I 

 found a large colony of Arctic Terns breeding, but again 

 no Common Terns, though I looked carefully for them. 

 There were a great many Common Gulls and Eider Ducks, 

 but very few eggs, and I think they had probably been 

 robbed. I also saw four Coots, some twenty to thirty 

 Shags, a few Black Guillemots, one Richardson's Skua, 

 three Mergansers, Lesser Black-backed, Herring, and Black- 

 headed Gulls. A few pairs of Oyster-Catchers (breeding), 

 one Dunlin, Starlings, Skylarks, and Lapwings. Leaving 

 Damsay, I landed at Finstown and bicycled over to Strom- 

 ness, seeing the following rather unusual list of birds for 

 the Orkneys, most of which were in a small wood belong- 

 ing to a private house above Finstown. Blackbirds (the 

 wood was full of them), Song Thrushes, Greenfinches (one 

 pair), Sparrows, Linnets, Twites, Wrens, Hedge-sparrows 

 (a pair), Robins (two pairs), Corn-Buntings, Wood-pigeons 

 (a flock of fourteen in a field near the wood), Yellow- 

 Buntings, Redshanks, Shags, Dunlins, Rock-Doves, Meadow- 

 Pipits, Snipe, Ringed Plovers, one Sand-Martin, and one 

 Common Sandpiper. On my return journey to the yacht, 

 I came across five Velvet Scoters, to which I got very close 

 in the launch. In the evening I left for Stornoway. 



During my visit to these Northern Islands I had the 

 great pleasure of watching, at comparatively close quarters. 



