SIDE LIGHTS ON BIRDS 



Fair Isle as an observation post, the Duchess of 

 Bedford, herself a keen and able ornithologist, 

 took up a temporary residence there. Among 

 the birds of extreme rarity as visitors to the 

 British Isles, obtained by Dr. Clarke at Fair 

 Island, are the Blue-throated Wheatear, Subal- 

 pine Warbler, Siberian ChifE-chaff, I^anceolated 

 Grasshopper Warbler, Red-throated Pipit, Green- 

 land Red-poll, Black-headed Bunting, Rustic 

 Bunting, Yellowshank, etc. The Pine Bunting, 

 Thrush-nightingale, Northern Willow-Warbler, 

 Blyth's Reed Warbler and the Red-rumped 

 Swallow, also recorded by Dr. Clarke, are new to 

 the British list. 



Vee Skerries. 



One advantage of an interest in Natural History 

 is that it constantly leads one to places that are 

 neglected by the rest of the world. 



A long wave-swept reef of rocks, barren and 

 deserted, lying far from all recognised routes, and 

 involving a toilsome journey to reach, has no 

 charm whatever for the normally constituted 

 tourist, even if he chances to notice on the map 

 the small black dot that represents it, which is 

 unlikely. Away to the west of the Shetlands is 

 such a reef, known as the Vee Skerries. Possibly 

 the crew of a stray whaler may run a boat once 

 in the space of years into one of its weedy channels 

 but there seems to be no special reason why they 

 should do so. In any case the men who volun- 

 teered to conduct our little expedition from the 

 nearest point on the main-land, said they had 

 never landed there, and the idea of anybody even 

 wishing to seemed to strike them as being strange. 



At low tide a considerable area of rock lay un- 

 covered, and in the deep clear pools, bright with 

 vari-coloured seaweeds, the remains of wreckage 

 might be seen that has probably rested there un- 

 touched for centuries. 



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