IN THE SHETLANDS 195 
hill on one side, a raven or two are generally to be 
seen; and I once saw one, whilst flying at some 
height, make an odd sort of manceuvre, the meaning 
of which I did not quite catch. It appeared to me, 
however, that he brought his foot forward towards 
his bill, and, at the same time, disgorged something, 
which he caught hold of with it. A second or two 
afterwards, as he came back into his natural pose, 
I thought I just saw something fall from him, like 
a faint shadow on the air, and almost instantly dis- 
appear. This raven had not been carrying anything in 
his bill before—at least, I believe not, for nothing 
broke the clear outline of it against the sky. What 
I believe he did was to bring up one of those curious 
pellets of indigestible materials that birds, generally, 
are in the habit of disgorging. But who would have 
thought that he would have first taken it into his 
claws, whilst flying, before letting it drop? But 
though I cannot be quite certain, yet I fee/ certain that 
this is what he did do. 
Herrings are still scattered over that part of the 
ness where the great skua breeds, and still they are 
headless, as I noticed the first time I came here, and 
have recorded in my Bird Watching. Out of twenty- 
four, for instance, that I have counted, all but three 
of them are in this condition. With the exception of 
the head but little of them has been eaten, and, of 
some, not any. Whether it is the old bird that eats 
the head only, before bringing the fish to the chick, 
or whether the chick helps to eat it, or whether it is 
