BIRDS OF SHETLAND 



webbed feet ; now it appears again at some un- 

 looked-for place, as though nothing had happened, 

 and rises erect in the water to beat the wave- 

 drops from its shining wings. 



On the less exposed sides of the island the sheer 

 precipice falls away, and its place is taken by- 

 gentler declivities, where rank herbage grows 

 amidst detached boulders. Here, as well as 

 upon the isolated stacks and holms, the great and 

 lesser black-headed gulls congregate, and here 

 their nests of dry grass may be found. The eggs 

 of both are usually three in number, and are of a 

 drab or light-olive ground colour, blotched with 

 grey and dark-brown. As it soars, snowy- 

 breasted against the blue sky, the great black- 

 backed gull is a singularly majestic bird— the 

 largest of his race. Its power is matched by its 

 voracity, and not content with fish, or with the 

 wholesale destruction of eggs, and even of young 

 birds, it will fall upon the weakling lamb on the 

 hill-side, and rend it in pieces. 



On many of the grassy holms to be found, not 

 only in the voes but in the lochs, colonies of 

 nesting terns take up their quarters. On land- 

 ing on one of these the air appears to be suddenly 

 filled with large white snow-flakes, and from every 

 hand come the shrill protesting cries. As one 

 stoops to examine the eggs, which lie on a mere 

 skeleton of a nest in well-nigh every depression, 

 one swift form after another will drop from mid- 

 air, missing one's head by a bare hand's breadth, 

 and ascending again to the heights in a single 

 curve. The courage of the tern, and its fidelity 

 to its young and fallen comrades, lead often to 

 wanton destruction on these tiny islands. When 

 a bird is shot the others cluster about it with 

 distressful cries, and cases have been known where 

 an entire colony has been pretty nearly decimated 



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