THE SOUTH ISLES. 43 



Kazorbills, etc., are not so abundant, but they seem exactly suited 

 to the Herring Gulls, which, at this locality, have some of the most 

 extensive colonies we know of in the Orkneys ; mixed with these 

 are a very few pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and still fewer 

 of their larger cousins. We were pleased, however, to find the (very 

 large) colony of Jackdaws, mentioned by Low in his tour, which 

 birds are decidedly uncommon in the islands ; and even our worthy 

 landlord at St. Margaret's Hope, who himself had a decided turn 

 for ornithology, did not know these birds existed in the island. A 

 male Peregrine was flying about amidst the crowd of Herring Gulls 

 disturbed by our approach, chattering most energetically, but the 

 female was invisible, nor could we see anything of the nest. 

 North of the sandy beach before mentioned at Newark Bay the 

 coast again rises, but to no great height, Grimness, a rocky head- 

 land, being the extreme eastern promontory. 



The highest point of the island is, as usual, the Ward Hill, 

 nearly 400 feet high, not far from Stowse Head, which is as yet 

 uncultivated, and covered with the usual very stunted heather and 

 coarse grass. For all its size, there is no really good heather, and 

 consequently no grouse in the island, and only a few hares and 

 rabbits. There are many marshes and lochs in the island, 

 especially in the south. These latter, with one exception, con- 

 tain no trout, but they afford some of the best snipe-shooting in 

 Orkney, for which indeed S. Konaldsay has always been famous. 

 Besides Snipe there is abundance of Dunlins, Eedshanks, etc., but 

 few ducks. During our walk round the island we saw but very 

 little in the way of small birds, either in number or species, even 

 Common Buntings and Wheatears were rare indeed, of the former 

 we only saw one individual. We saw none of the Black-headed 

 Gulls at the loch near the church as mentioned by Low, but many 

 Coots and a few Waterhens. This loch is very reedy at the 

 southern end, and the margins very boggy. 



Swona, which lies to the south-west of S. Eonaldsay, is a 

 small rocky islet a little over a mile long by about a third broad. 



