BIRDS. 151 



Be this as it may, the Goshawk must be an extremely rare 

 visitor there now, as we have no authentic record of its 

 occurrence, except that mentioned by Gray, in his Birds of 

 the West of Scotland, where at page 36 he says : " Mr. Stewart 

 also states that he saw a living specimen of the Goshawk, in 

 August 1866, on board the yacht CMoe, the owner, J. Rattray, 

 Esq., having procured it in Orkney a short time previously." 



Messrs. Baikie and Heddle say that this species is not 

 abundant, though some few remain the whole year round. 



Mr. Heddle of Melsetter says : " Very rarely observed. I 

 never saw one. Indeed I cannot get an authenticated notice of 

 one being seen by a person I could depend on for identification."] 



Accipiter nisus (L.) Sparrow-hawk. 



Although most writers on the birds of Orkney, from Low down 

 to Messrs Baikie and Heddle, record this as a common species, 

 this is far from being the case. We ourselves never met with 

 the bird during our residence at Westness in Rousay, where 

 trees for roosting, and numberless small birds for food, should 

 have proved great attractions. What is generally called the 

 Sparrow-hawk in the Orkneys is in reality the Kestrel. 



The true Sparrow-hawk does, however, occur, and more 

 commonly than we at one time supposed. Mr. Moodie-Heddle 

 writes us: "I killed one at Melsetter in 1870, which is the 

 only one I ever saw in Orkney, or heard of. What is commonly 

 called the Sparrow-hawk is the Kestrel." 



One killed in 1887 at Smoogroo, on the Mainland, by Miss 

 Flower, who has shot several, is now stuffed and in the posses- 

 sion of Mr. Cameron of Burgar. Mr. Reid tells us he has also 

 killed the Sparrow-hawk in Orkney. 



Mr. Spence tells us that he knew of one instance in which 

 the eggs of this bird were obtained from the Head of Holland. 



Mr. Ranken says he has often seen this species in the plan- 

 tation of Muddiesdale, and has known it build in the same 

 cleft of rock with the rock-pigeon, apparently both being on 

 terms of good neighbourhood. 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue says he sometimes sees a small hawk 



