SHETLAND MIDSUMMER 135 



body. Puffins, by dozens, bob on the waves, and 

 cormorants, not one but many, occupy the exposed 

 rocklets, or bend their horizontal flight across the 

 water. 



Among the forms less familiar to us in the south 

 are the shearwater, the fulmar petrel, and the 

 great skua. Than the last of these three, there is 

 no native nearer, or in greater danger of extinction. 



The more interesting land birds are those one 

 would expect in a treeless scene, i.e., such as do not 

 perch, and build on the ground. While the rose 

 linnet, a bush or furze haunter, though reported, 

 is either absent or very rare, the mountain linnet, 

 or twite, with which the former is probably con- 

 founded, is common. I asked some boys to show 

 me the eggs they were in the habit of getting, 

 and found them to be mainly those of the latter 

 species. 



The wren greets one everywhere, and it is per- 

 fectly delightful, and homelike to see him popping 

 out from the dry stone dykes which surround the 

 crofts, or to hear his loud pipe amid the wildest rocky 

 scenes. 



Happily for the gaiety of the place, the lark 

 abounds. The meadow-pipit is numerous ; the 

 rock-pipit still more so. The former is named the 



