APPENDIX. 301 



Scolopax rusticola, L. Woodcock. 



Although the Orkneys never had a great reputation for Woodcocks, 

 at times large flights of these birds arrive there, especially in 

 Hoy. Under date of March 26th, 1890, Mr. Moodie-Heddle 

 writes us as follows : " About Woodcock in Orkney, it depends 

 somewhat on the season, but I never failed in getting a few 

 brace in Hoy between the middle of October and the middle of 

 February. 



"A few sometimes stay to breed, as I think I told you. I 

 have seen two nests, and know of the eggs having been taken 

 on the Hobbister ground. 



" I believe a man in Stromness made a big bag near there 

 some years ago, coming on them just after they had landed, though 

 I never was fortunate enough to fall on a big lot but once, 

 when I put up, I think, thirty-one, but only got three or four, 

 as it was the first of a thaw after deep snow, and they were 

 exceedingly wild, and the snow deep and wet. 



"A keeper of ours once flushed forty in an afternoon, in 

 Hoy, I believe, without a dog ; and when gathering 

 sheep for smearing, somewhere about three years ago, my 

 shepherd and the grieve told me they put up, along one 

 beat, over forty Woodcock ; unfortunately they did not tell 

 me till the third day after, which was wet ; next day they had 

 moved, and I only got three, I think. 



" Six and a half brace was the highest I ever killed in a day 

 in Hoy, and one and a half in Walls, where they are not so 

 common, being more widely spread over the hills, and not so 

 easily found. 



" A good many died there (Hoy) with a hard frost some 

 years since. I had one once, damaged by the telegraph wires, 

 which got pretty tame. They seem more intelligent than Snipe, 

 I think, but are not so demonstrative." 



Tringa minuta, Leisl. Little Stint. 



Mr. Warne, during a visit to Sanday in September 1890, recog- 

 nised three Little Stints there on the shore. 



