138 BIRDS. 



Messrs. Baikie and Heddle seem to have taken Low's descrip- 

 tion to a great extent for their own use, as they say it is not 

 common, but builds in retired hilly districts, and is extremely shy. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle considers the foregoing authors were in 

 error altogether about this owl, and adds that he never saw it 

 in Orkney. 



Mr. Harvey sends us word that a Tawny or " Screech " Owl 

 was shot in Sanday about 1869, and this very unsatisfactory 

 note is the only one we have received from all our correspond- 

 ents about the species.] 



Nyctea scandiaca (.). Snowy Owl. 



Though perhaps never so abundant as in the Shetland Islands, 

 the Snowy Owl seems always to have been a not very uncommon 

 visitor to the Orkneys. 



Professor Newton called our attention to the following 

 account in Bullock's Catalogue : "In July 1812, in the island 

 of N. Konaldsay, one of the Orkneys, we were informed that 

 a bird of this kind had been seen on the rabbit warren on (or ?) 

 Links for several weeks, and shortly after I had an opportunity 

 of examining it for some time at the distance of about forty 

 yards. It was a male (the specimen now in the museum), and 

 its companion had been killed a few months before on the 

 island: one of them had likewise visited the adjacent isle 

 Westra, and remained there for some time." 



In a letter from E. F. Sheppard 1 to T. C. Heysham, dated 

 Sept. 28th, 1840, he says: "except the Snowy Owl, which, from 

 the description given me of the bird, I am inclined to think has 

 many times been seen there (Orkney) in the winter season, but 

 as there are few gunners and few collectors, it has very rarely 

 been shot. There is a specimen in the Edinburgh museum 

 which was shot in Orkney some years ago." 



About November 1840 Sheppard's brother, who seems 

 to have resided in Orkney for some considerable time, wrote 



1 Mr. Sheppard, who lived at Ipswich, was a martyr to rheumatism, and was 

 ordered by his doctor to try Orkney for a change. Although not by any means 

 curing him, it seems to have somewhat relieved him, and he made several stays 

 of longer or shorter duration at Stromness. He communicated pretty regularly 

 from there with Mr. T. C. Heysham of Carlisle. 



