THE NORTH ISLES. 1 7 



few eels, and almost free from weeds and herbage, afford but 

 little feeding-ground for birds. A few Swans, Golden-eye, Widgeon, 

 Teal, etc., frequent them and the small adjoining deep loch, 

 Dooney, in winter. 



" Owing to the porosity of the subsoil, there is but little marshy 

 ground in the island, and consequently little running water, nor 

 are springs abundant. 



"The Eider and Sheldrake, the Greater and Lesser Black- 

 backed, Herring and Common Gulls, Oyster-catcher, etc., breed in 

 considerable numbers on the Calf, and on its ledges large numbers 

 of Cormorants, Guillemots, and Kittiwakes nest annually." 



NORTH FARA. 



Lying between Eday and the south of Westray are Fara and 

 its Holm, which are connected at low water. Fara itself is wholly 

 cultivated, and neither of the islands possesses any interest to the 

 ornithologist. The Holm is covered with grass growing on a dry 

 bed of peat, but the people of Fara are now rapidly paring it off 

 for fuel, which will soon make the Holm nothing but bare rock 

 and sand. A few gulls, Twites, Starlings, Black Guillemots, and 

 one Eider Duck with one young one, were all the birds we saw. 

 On the Red Holm, on which we could not land on account of 

 the weather, a great number of Cormorants were resting. 



WESTRAY. 



Westray has some of the finest rock-scenery in the North Isles. 

 Noup Head, the north-west point, stands well out into the Atlantic, 

 and it is a fine sight to see the rollers sending their spray far up 

 its height after an autumn gale, even from such a distance away as 

 Rousay, as we ourselves have witnessed. To see these islands 

 properly they should be viewed from a boat as well as from land, 

 and this, unfortunately, time did not permit us to do, so we pre- 

 ferred to keep upon terra firma. 



B 



