154 THE SHETLANDS IN THE 



we afterwards failed to find any mention of it in Dr. 

 Saxby's Birds of Shetland, and were too modest to 

 suppose that it had been reserved for us, in a week's 

 visit, to make an addition to his list, we were obliged 

 to conclude that, to our eyes, more accustomed to the 

 smoky colour tones of London, the clean head feathers 

 of a spick and span House Sparrow in wedding gar- 

 ments had seemed the chocolate cap of the smaller 

 and rarer bird. 



The small birds we noticed oftenest inland were 

 Mountain Linnets or 'Twites,' which, though scarce 

 farther south, here take the place of the common 

 Linnet, which is seldom or never seen in Shetland, 

 The two birds are very much alike, the only points of 

 difference of any importance being that the beak, 

 which in the common Linnet is a blue-black, is yellow 

 in the Twite, and that the pink, which is a conspicuous 

 feature in the summer plumage of most of the family, 

 instead of appearing, as it does in the Linnet, on the 

 head and breast, shows itself less strongly in the Twite 

 on the back near the tail. 



Every now and then what we took to be a Raven 

 flew over, high up, or a Plover rose and wheeled round 

 us, the hen-bird waiting, as in Shakespeare's day, till 

 ' far from her nest,' to cry ' away,' and trying to mislead 

 us by doubling signs of anxiety, probably, as we walked 

 away from her treasures. 



We noticed a few Larks and Pipits, and occasionally 

 a pair of Wheatears, who, like other visitors from the 

 south, evidently appreciate the softness of Shetland 



