BIRDS. 133 



Indeed from its rarity all through the north of Scotland, as w ell 

 as in more northern countries, it could never be anything else 

 than a very uncommon visitant. 



Family CORACIID-ffi. 

 Coracias garrula, L. Roller. 



The first mention we have of the Eoller in Orkney is in the 2d 

 edition of Wallace's Description of the Orkneys (1700), where he 

 mentions this bird as occurring along with the Hoopoe. 



In a MS. note by the late Eobert Heddle, he says that in 

 thirty years Mr. Strang saw seven Eollers in Sanday. Mr. 

 Moodie-Heddle says his father shot a Roller on the Melsetter 

 links, but gives no date. 



In a letter from E. F. Sheppard to T. 0. Heysham, he 

 says: "About the middle of June 1843 a Roller was caught 

 by a cat in S. Ronaldsay, which, I was told, was not the first 

 time this bird had been killed there." 



In 1869 Mr. Peter Anderson, lighthouse-keeper, shot a 

 Roller in Sanday about October of that year. 



Mr. Ranken informs us that a specimen of this bird was 

 found lying dead underneath a boat in the island of Eday in 

 the winter of 1874. 



Family UPUPIDJE. 

 Upupa epops, L. Hoopoe. 



As early as 1693 the Hoopoe is mentioned by Wallace as having 

 occurred in the Orkneys. 



Besides those mentioned by Messrs. Baikie and Heddle in 

 their work, we have notes of several others having been obtained. 



Mr. W. Reid tells us he has noted in Land and Water some 

 four or five specimens shot in Orkney since 1841. 



Mr. Begg, Stromness, informs us that he, in 1842, shot three 

 Hoopoes at one shot, out of a flock of fourteen, in Sanday, and 

 he has stuffed two since. It is not often that these birds 

 appear in such numbers. 



Mr. Cowan mentions that there was a Hoopoe in the late 



