ORNITHOLOGICAL E AMBLES. 93 



felt from the first the shot had told, though he exhibited 

 but slender evidence of the same, and veered away so 

 far that I could only trace his progress with the aid of 

 my glass. He had almost vanished in the far distance, 

 a small and indistinct black speck, when his motions 

 all at once manifested an absence of control, and falling 

 briskly on the wind, down, down, down in slow and 

 lessening circlets, descended spirally to the wave. 



" lo triumphe !" was the cry, as we bore down with 

 all sail, and at last found the object of our search 

 floating placidly and dead upon the tossing wave. He 

 proved a first-rate specimen, and a welcome addition to 

 my collection. 



Changing our course again we steered for the 

 " Barrel of Butter," a large herring-barrel placed upon 

 the top of a tall post, to warn the inexperienced from a 

 dangerous pile of rocks in the very centre of the Flow. 

 Such small isolated spots as this are often the favourite 

 resting-places of some of the rarer birds, and I was 

 fortunate in obtaining a beautiful pair of the little auk 

 which had been shot at this point at an earlier period 

 of the season. These birds are becoming extremely 

 rare in these parts of late years. There are several 

 persons now living who remember the great auk (Alca 

 impennis) breeding on the rocks at Papa Westra, when 

 they as children have taken their eggs and broken 

 them in wanton sport. Sad, indeed, is it to hear such 

 melancholy evidence, and which each succeeding year, 



