BIRDS. 181 



Mr. Watt tells us the Dunter is rare in the neighbourhood 

 of Skaill. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle mentions that, after the young are 

 hatched, the drakes go out to sea, and this is what the Orkney 

 fishermen all declare is the case. 



In the throat of a male Eider shot by Mr. Millais he found 

 a "Kazor-fish" five inches in length. He also goes on to say 

 that the barren hens in the summer assume a very curious dark 

 form of plumage, which he has not noticed except in the breed- 

 ing season. Up to the first week in July, the same gentleman 

 says, the old males may be seen sitting about everywhere on 

 the shore as tame as barn-door fowls, but that a week afterwards 

 not one is visible, they having gone northward to the great bay 

 between Sanday aud North E-onaldsay, where they stay for a 

 fortnight until they have assumed their curious sleek plumage 

 and new wing feathers. They then migrate north to return 

 again in October in small numbers, which gradually increase 

 till the following spring. 



The young birds of the year are not common, though one 

 will occasionally see a flock of them, but the second and third 

 year's birds are very scarce, adults being most conspicuous. 



We only saw one Eider about Papa Westray and the holm 

 in the summer of 1888, but Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie informs us 

 that he saw numbers there in the autumn of 1889. 



Somateria spectabilis (L.) King Eider. 



No one, as yet, has been able to corroborate Bullock's state- 

 ment that this bird breeds in Papa Westray, where, in June 

 1812, he took a nest with six eggs. 



The bird itself, however, has been obtained on several 

 occasions, as mentioned in Baikie and Heddle's book and in 

 the fourth edition of Yarrell. 



Besides these instances, Mr. E. S. Cameron of Burgar shot 

 an adult male in March 1884, which he sent to Mr. Dunbar, 

 Thurso, for preservation. 



Eeferring to Mr. Bullock's statement just mentioned, Mr. 

 Monteith-Ogilvie writes us as follows : " I am not quite so sure 

 . . . that the King Duck has not bred in Papa Westray." 



