BIRDS. 169 



flight. They announce their intention by their noise, and 

 altogether set off in different flocks, seemingly under different 

 leaders, and take an annual departure regularly, always making 

 the Brough of Birsay, the westermost point of high land, their 

 Cape Farewel." 



Shirreff, in his General View of the Agriculture of the Orkney Isles, 

 published in 1814, carries the breeding of the Wild Swan down 

 to a later date. He says that several pairs used to nest on the 

 islands in the loch of Harray ''until about twenty years ago, 

 but being much annoyed about that time deserted the lake." 

 If Shirreff is accurate, this would extend the date of the birds 

 breeding there twenty years after Fea said they had given up 

 doing so. 



The Hooper is rare in the winter, but common in the early 

 spring months, as late on as the first week in April. In the 

 Field for April 17th, 1886, Mr. E. S. Cameron gives an account 

 of the numbers seen by him, both on the Mainland and Eousay, 

 and the localities they frequented, and from this it appears that 

 this species outnumbers the next. 



Both Mr. Ranken and Mr. Irvine-Fortescue talk of swans in 

 much the same terms as above, and the former gentleman adds 

 that, though often within shot, he never fired at these birds. 



A large flock of Wild Swans arrived in North Ronaldsay 

 on January 27th, 1881, the wind blowing from the west. They 

 alighted on the shore, and were so exhausted that a man who 

 saw them alight said the surf rolled some of them over. They 

 soon recovered, and flew over to a fresh-water loch, where they 

 made themselves at home, and, by being kept perfectly quiet 

 and unmolested, got so tame, that Dr. Traill, on whose property 

 they were, being out one day with a retriever when some of 

 the Swans were feeding on the bank, instead of flying away in 

 a hurry, they merely swam into the water, when he and his dog 

 stood looking at them. 



On October 25th, 1887, Mr. Irvine-Fortescue saw six swans, 

 two white and four grey birds, passing in front of his house 

 from S.S.W. to N.N.E. They seemed as if about to alight on 

 the shore, but changed their minds and continued their north- 

 easterly course. 



