XXIV FLORA ORCADENSIS. 
intrusion. Their actions guided me to a pair of 
young ones, which were so far advanced as to be 
able to fly short distances. After essaying what 
was no doubt their first flight, I handled them to 
see what the parents would do. To my disappoint- 
ment both winged their flight to a short distance to 
view the proceedings. When the young were again 
set free the parents resumed their wonted fortitude. 
My sole guide to the whereabouts of this plant was 
that reference to it in Tudor’s “The Orkneys and 
Shetland,” in which he speaks of it as growing 
“near the Goukheads, where the Sourin Burn flows 
from the Muckle Water.” While climbing the inter- 
vening hill, I found for the first time Alchemilla 
vulgaris, var. filicawlis ; and on the top of the hill 
vaccantium myrtillus, var. microphylla, previously 
reported from Shetland by Mr Beeby, a gentleman 
who had made a special botanical study of the 
plants of Shetland. On descending the hill on the 
other side, I found near the hags a glorious display 
of scores of Pyrola rotundifolia in full flower. The 
dark-brown heather served as a back-ground for the 
lovely waxen pink and white blossoms, which grew 
in slightly waving racemes so far apart as to enhance 
the beauty of the scene. Eager to touch yet loth to 
destroy, I lay down amid the heather and admired 
the picture. It is, I think, without exaggeration, 
the prettiest flower in Orkney. 
From there I rounded the Muckle Water and 
climbed the Ward Hill; but before Trumbland Pier 
was reached aching limbs reminded me that the 
task had been overdone. The good luck which 
