THE SOUTH ISLES. 41 



Stormy Petrels must breed in the holes and cracks in the hard 

 peaty soil. In the rocks to the south-east we saw numbers of 

 Black Guillemots, some Kock Doves, and numbers of Herring 

 Gulls. 



In Low's time Switha was a breeding-place of the White- 

 tailed Eagle. 



LAMBHOLM, BUKEAY, HUNDA, AND GLIMPSHOLM. 



Lying close to the north end of S. Eonaldsay are the islands 

 of Lambholm, Burray, Hunda, and Glimpsholm. Lambholm is 

 entirely cultivated, and possessed of no particular ornithological 

 interest. Burray, though much cultivated, still possesses Grouse, 

 and Mr. Cowan informs us that as many as twenty brace * may be 

 got there any day in August; it also used to be noted for the 

 abundance of its rabbits, but this did not compensate for the mis- 

 chief they did by burrowing into the sand, and so enabling the wind 

 to get hold of it and blow it about. Hunda is a small island about 

 a mile long, and connected to Burray at low water by a narrow 

 strip of beach ; it is a most desolate-looking island, scarcely a bird 

 to be seen on it, and contains but one croft. The uncultivated 

 part is, as usual, covered with stunted heather, mixed with an 

 immense amount of the crowberry plant ; the top of the surface is 

 being rapidly peeled off for fuel. The west side consists of low 

 rocks, which contain no birds, and on the east side we only met 

 with a very few of the commonest species, one Black Guillemot, a 

 Eed-breasted Merganser, a Snipe, and a few Eedshanks, etc., being 

 all we saw ; there is a little grass at the south-east end. 



Glimpsholm is a fine grassy island, with a little stunted 

 heather at the north side, and on the south-east side a patch of 

 brackens. Here was the largest colony of Arctic Terns we had as 

 yet seen, their nests being placed at random in the short grass, 

 some even yet empty (July 5), others containing one and two eggs. 

 Besides terns there were quantities of the common shore waders. 

 There was a large flock of Curlews on the island, either migrants 



Probably not so abundant now, judging from later information. 



