TheGodmt.'] OF ORKNEY. 83 



tirely a visitor. I have fallen in with small flocks of about a 

 dozen, on our sandy shores in winter, where they feed with 

 the curlew. It seems to be a stupid kind of bird ; has no- 

 thing of the shyness of the curlew. I have shot several times 

 at the flock, and after killing part, the others, after a small 

 flight, would endure to be shot at several times immediately 

 after. 



The flesh is very delicate ; seems the best tasted of all our 

 shore birds, quite free from the rankness of some, and the 

 fishy taste of others. 



The Greemhank I have seen once on the burn-side of Bir- 

 say, in a stormy season, but do not take it to be an inhabi- 

 tant of these isles, any more than the next-mentioned, but 

 rather transient visitors. I have heard of one or two Wood- 

 cocks shot in Orkney, but they make us no regular visits that 

 I can find. 



