BIRDS. 18$ 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue remarks that this bird remains about 

 Swanbister Bay almost, if not quite, the whole year round. 



Mr. Millais informs us that this species occurs very 

 numerously round the islands of Cava, Risa Little, Fara, and 

 Flotta, but mostly old males, the females not being in greater 

 proportions than one to two of the former ; young birds of the 

 year are very rare, he having only shot one, a young male. 

 Mr. Millais has observed them in June, and on August 2d, 1888, 

 he killed an old male that was moulting his pinions, the feathers 

 round the fore part of his face were grey, the rest of the 

 plumage normal. 



Mr. Monteith-Ogilvie writes us that after leaving Kirkwall 

 he saw no Velvet Scoters about Westray, Papa Westray, or 

 San day. 



CEdemia nigra (L.) Common Scoter. 



A very rare bird in Orkney, and not mentioned by any of the 

 earlier writers down to Dunn. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle tells us he has never seen a single 

 specimen of this bird in Orkney : his father saw them in Long- 

 hope in 1857, and notes them as rare. 



Mr. Eanken writes that, in April 1844, his father found a 

 dead bird of this species that had been washed ashore on the 

 sandy beach which connects Deerness and St. Andrews, and 

 that that was the only one he ever saw in Orkney. 



Mr. Irvine-Fortescue informs us that a few frequent the 

 Swanbister bay in winter, but he never saw more than six or 

 eight in a flock. 



The late Mr. Robert Heddle had a note of one killed in 

 Sanday in 1849, but it must be rare there as elsewhere, as 

 neither Mr. Denison nor Mr. Harvey has sent us any notice of it, 



Mr. Millais has only seen two Common Scoters in Orkney, 

 one near Fara, and the other in Grsemsay Sound ; the latter he 

 unfortunately lost after wounding it. 



We saw a fine adult male in Inganess Bay, near Kirkwall, 

 on May 26th, 1888. 



