Q [Jainiivr, 



Office I sa'w a fine specimen of Vanessa Atalanta at rest on a coal 

 heap, but unfortunately had no net with me ; an hour or two later 

 my son saw another, at least a mile from the first locality, and a third 

 Avas seen two or three days after. I have not the means at hand of 

 ascertaining whether this is a fresh record for Shetland, though I see 

 in an old volume of the "Entomologist" a statement that no butter- 

 flies are found there. Having secured an experienced boatman, we 

 started heavily laden with the necessary paraphernalia for botanizing 

 and again sugaring at night, and the provisions required for at least 

 two meals. What my son designated " bun-tongue sandwiches " 

 formed the staple of our picnic repasts, and entomologists visiting 

 Unst will do well to purchase a few provisions before leaving Lerwick. 

 The collection of three species of Hieracium, well known in 

 Scandinavia, though confined in Britain to the Shetlands, was the 

 object of our expedition. Our destination was the Loch-a-cliff, a 

 narrow lake running north and south about three and a half miles long, 

 with moderate hills rising steeply from both sides. Coasting along 

 the east bank the first species found was a form of Hieracium dovrense, 

 Fr., but very sparingly, and neither bank yielded any more until we 

 reached some miniature rocky cliffs on the west side of the head of 

 the loch. Here we found the last-named species in abundance, 

 associated with Hieraciutn protractum, Lindeb., a plant readily dis- 

 tinguished from the above by its long narrow leaves, which are 

 beautifully blotched with reddish-purple. The Loch-a-cliff" is separated 

 from Burrafirth, an arm of the sea, by a sandy track about half a mile 

 across, containing several plants of local interest, through which a 

 burn flow^s into the sea. In the damp rushy hollows of this low-lying 

 tract is found the deep purplish-brown Shetland form of Coremia 

 munitata, while on the cliffs of Burrafirth we netted some very dark 

 Larentia didymata. Near the same spot we secured Hieracium pul- 

 chellum, Lindeb., the third species of which we were in search. It 

 grows sparingly in the grass of the sandy cliffs, and so far has been 

 found in no other locality in Shetland. Our main object being thus 

 accomplished, the afternoon was spent in a boat on Burrafirth, the 

 fine weather enabling us to row to the splendid caves and tunnels 

 under the gigantic cliffs of Saxaford, though the heavy swell from the 

 open sea rendered it unsafe to enter them, and when we heard wave 

 after wave thundering away into the darkness we felt little desire to 

 follow, nor did we attempt to laud at the Muckle Elugga lighthouse. 

 The fury with which the waves beat over this isolated and northern- 

 most islet may be imagined from the fact that, notwithstanding the 



