xvm INTRODUCTORY. 



tive summary of the whole faunal history of the islands, both past 

 and present. 



The Orkney Islands have a long history, and a very large litera- 

 ture, for from very early times they have been of great importance, 

 perhaps more so during the Norse period and down to the fifteenth 

 or sixteenth century than they have ever been since. 



Zoology, however, did not flourish much as a science during 

 those stormy periods, though occasional reference to the more im- 

 portant animals occur in the Orkneyinga Sagas. Several notes of 

 mammals and birds are to be found in Sibbald's Scotia Illustrata, still 

 more in the works of Wallace and Fea. The former of these two 

 latter authors gives many notices of birds, and we are indebted to 

 him for first recording the Eoller, Hoopoe and Bittern from these 

 islands, though the last-named bird seems to have been of doubt- 

 ful occurrence : the description of the Hoopoe is, however, made 

 pretty clear. Eagles are constantly mentioned, and a long list of 

 the breeding-places of the Peregrine is given, when that bird 

 enjoyed royal protection. 



It is not, however, until we come to the latter half of the last 

 century that anything practical was done for Natural History. At 

 that time (circa 1770) the Eev. George Low, minister of Birsay, 

 encouraged by Pennant, wrote out his Fauna Orcadensis, which was 

 edited and published in 1813, by W. Leach, Low having died before 

 he could issue the work himself. Another posthumous work of his 

 is, A Tour through Orkney and Shetland, which only came to light 

 in 1879. This Tour abounds in Natural History references, and 

 was written in 1774. 



In 1812, Bullock made two voyages to the Orkney and Shetland 

 Isles, and wrote several papers in the Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society. He also gave some notes to Montagu which were pub- 

 lished in an appendix to his Ornithological Dictionary, those concern- 

 ing the Great Auk being by far the most important. Bullock 

 procured many specimens of birds when in Orkney for his London 

 Museum, as may be seen by a reference to any of the numerous 

 editions of his Guide to that Institution, but he never seems to have 

 published any separate work on the Islands. 



