SIDE LIGHTS ON BIRDS 



they mostly return in the summer to nest on the 

 grassy islands of the northern lochs. We have 

 no record of the great northern actually nesting 

 so far south as the Shetlands, although birds in 

 full breeding array are sometimes to be met with, 

 but on certain of the holms of the more remote 

 lochs the black-throat is still to be found, and 

 throughout the whole of the north of Scotland, as 

 well as in the Shetlands, the red-throat is a 

 regular nesting species. 



In the later autumn these birds take to the 

 sea, and some time before the coming of bad 

 weather may be seen with their long necks out- 

 stretched, making back for the land. From this 

 habit the red-throat is generally known in Shet- 

 land as the rain-goose. 



One of the most interesting birds of the loch, 

 still to be seen in the Shetlands, is the red-necked 

 phalarope. Sometimes, when one is fishing on 

 the more secluded, reed-fringed waters, a tiny 

 snipe-like bird, which may easily be mistaken for a 

 dunlin, darts across the boat, with rapid beats 

 of its sharp-pointed wings. To one's surprise, 

 however, it suddenly drops into the water on 

 nearing the reed-bed, and may be seen placidly 

 swimming to and fro like a miniature duck. 

 The nest is usually in a tuft of grass in a wet place, 

 and the four eggs, sharply pointed, have a green 

 ground colour with black markings. Unfor- 

 tunately for its own chances of survival, the 

 phalarope is of a singularly confiding disposition, 

 and will often swim without alarm within an oar's 

 length of the boat. On this account, a most 

 interesting and attractive species — once plentiful 

 in Shetland, Orkney, and outer Hebrides — is now 

 represented by a few pairs only. 



Of the ducks which frequent the Shetland 

 lochs, the mallard is most frequently to be seen. 



170 



