44 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



VI. 



A FEW NOTES ON THE MAMMALS AND 

 BIRDS OF ROUS AY, ONE OF THE ORKNEY 

 ISLANDS. 



BY T. E. BUCKLEY, B.A., F.Z.S. 



[Read 29th April, ISSl.] 



Of all the districts of Scotland, the Orkneys seem 

 to be the one which has had of late years the least 

 attention paid to its zoology, or at least to those 

 branches of it that I have mentioned at the 

 heading of this article. No doubt there are plenty 

 of notices scattered here and there through natural 

 history journals, such as the Zoologist, on certain 

 rare or infrequent visitors to these islands ; but no 

 Gray or Saxby has arisen to do for them what these 

 excellent naturalists have done for the Hebrides and 

 Shetlands. This is the more to be regretted, as 

 agriculture is advancing with such rapid strides as 

 bid fair soon to improve all the heather and wild 

 places, such as the more interesting species delight 

 in, off the face of the country. Forty years ago 

 the greater part of the mainland, as the large island 

 of Pomona is called, was mostly heather, the culti- 

 vated portions being those nearest the coast; now 

 some of the hills are cultivated nearly to their very 

 tops ; draining is also another very j)otent aid in 

 driving away the waders and water-fowl ; and last, 

 but not least, the insatiable desire shown by all the 

 inhabitants, young and old, to take every e^g, no 

 matter what, that is large enough to make it worth 

 their while to cook it. Still, the number of small 

 islands, or holms, as they are called, act as guardians 

 to a good many of those species most interesting to 

 the naturalist, such as Eider Ducks, Stormy Petrels, 



