Orcadian Home of the Garefowl. 589 



examination of tlie locality^ and I very much regret that I 

 had not sooner made my friends acquainted with it, for 

 thus they would have been saved from some perplexity, and, 

 their own investigations having been more complete, would 

 have rendered the present notice unnecessary. 



The significance of this fact, when I had duly perceived it, 

 coupled with the statement (to which I have just referred) 

 of Mr. Harvie-Brown as to the unsuitableness of any part of 

 the larger island for a breeding-place of the Garefowl, made 

 me very desirous of seeing for myself the Holm of Papa 

 Westray, and on the 30th of June, 1893, I had the pleasure 

 of being taken in the yacht of my kind friend Mr. Henry 

 Evans to view it. As we steamed northward along its eastern 

 and seaward side, keeping as near the shore as was con- 

 sidered to be prudent, there was at first little encourage- 

 ment ; but, after passing the north-eastern end of the islet, 

 we were able to look back, and then saw, though at a con- 

 siderable distance, the land falling away in a succession of 

 large flake-like slabs^ sloping in a north-westerly direction 

 toward the sound or channel between the Holm and the larger 

 island. This seemed to me to form so likely a breeding- 

 place for this flightless bird that I longed for an opportunity 

 of examining it more closely, and even of landing upon it. 

 Though Mr. Evans took me to the Orkneys again in 1896 

 and 1897, and was anxious that I should accomplish my 

 wish, the weather and other considerations hindered us from 

 approaching so near to the Holm as we had done in 1893 ; 

 but in the present summer my desire was fulfilled. On the 

 27th of June, 1898, we left Kirkwall about 6 o'clock in the 

 morning, and, the weather being propitious, we some hours 

 after reached the southern entrance of the sound between 

 Papa Westray and its Holm. Then, embarking in the ship's 

 boat, we were rowed up the sound along the western side of 

 the Holm. Its southern end and the adjoining shore are 

 encumbered with large rounded boulders, which would render 

 a lauding inconvenient if not impossible for a Garefowl. To 

 this immediately succeeds a little bay of less forbidding 

 aspect, for it was enlivened by the presence of ten Grey Seals 



