IN “THE SHETLANDS 201 
the wide expanse of it around them allows of free 
and extended movement. But when a land-bird 
washes itself it does so under very different condi- 
tions, and a more or less lively tubbing is the utmost 
one would expect it to evolve out of the situation. 
Anything more than this would probably go hand-in- 
hand with an increased liking for the water, that is to 
say with a gradual change of habitat. Some, perhaps, 
may think that the fact which I am trying to account 
for has not yet been made out, but I beg these, if they 
have not already done so, to watch shags bathing, and 
then I think they will say that it has. I have already 
described it in the work to which I so often have to 
allude,’ but any mere description must be weak com- 
pared with the reality. 
Numbers of young kittiwakes are still on the ledges ; 
they look quite mature, and much like some pretty 
species of dove. Many are on the nests and close 
beside the parent birds, though sometimes, but not 
often, the latter seem impatient of their presence and 
force them to take flight. Anywhere else than on the 
ledges the young seem to keep to themselves, swim- 
ming together in large flocks upon the sea, or standing 
so on the rocks. One may sometimes see an old bird 
amongst them, but the association is half-hearted, nor 
does it last long. Of the fulmar petrels I have nothing 
more to record except that my statement in regard to 
the hen bird not permitting her husband to sit with 
her by the chick was incorrect, or, at least, needs quali- 
1 Bird Watching, pp. 170-1. 
