BIRDS. 173 



Dafila acuta (L.). Pintail. 



This seems to be a very rare species on the Mainland. The only 

 occasion on which Mr. Irvine-Fortescue (who is a capital field- 

 naturalist, and a keen wild-fowler) observed it, was at Swan- 

 bister on May 20, 1888. 



Mr. Harvey says it occurs, perhaps not uncommonly, in 

 Sanday during winter, and when there in July 1888, we 

 picked up the remains of a drake, the wings being quite perfect. 



Mr. Watt tells us he has seen Pintails on the loch of Skaill 

 in March, but never during the breeding season. 



On the 2d of February 1885,, a Pintail was sent from Kirk- 

 wall to Mr. Small of Edinburgh for preservation. 



Mr. E. S. Cameron has an adult male in his collection, which 

 was shot by moonlight on February 27th, 1888, at the loch of 

 Quanterness by Mr. M'Cree of Kirkwall, a most enthusiastic 

 wild-fowl shooter. 



Mareca penelope (L.). Widgeon. 



A common, but local, winter visitant, at least on the Mainland, 

 where their great haunts are the lochs of Stenness and Harray ; 

 here they occur in flocks of from 100 to 200. Mr. Irvine- 

 Fortescue says the Widgeon arrives soon after the middle of 

 October; he has seldom seen it on Kirbister Loch, in Orphir 

 parish, and then only three or four at a time. At Swanbister 

 they are irregular in their numbers and times of visiting that 

 place ; they have been seen there in September, and once as 

 many as eighteen together; in the winter of 1886-7 they were 

 almost entirely absent. 



Mr. Watt has only seen a few at a time on the loch of 

 Skaill. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle informs us that they breed every year 

 in Hoy, and have done so for some time back. He says : " At 

 one small loch my shooting tenant kills usually seven or eight 

 brace on the 1st of August. Baikie and Heddle were not 

 aware of this, and perhaps the Widgeon did not then breed here." 



This is the only place known to us, as yet, where the 

 Widgeon breeds in Orkney. 



