Tkc Summer Birds of Shetland. 543 



publication of Saxby's book in 1874 Saxby at that time 

 remarked on the increasing numbers of various species of 

 small birds that spent the summer in the islands, and confi- 

 dently expected a still further increase every year. These 

 expectations, however, have been in a great measure dis- 

 appointed. Planting has very slightly increased, and if 

 undertaken in the same manner as I observed at the Ness of 

 Hillswick in 1887, must necessarily prove a failure. At that 

 spot — an exposed position on the west coast — about a quarter 

 of an acre had been -planted with young fir-trees, all dead at 

 the time of my visit ; and to protect this young plantation 

 from the fierce sea gales, there was erected round it a three- 

 strand wire fence ! In places inaccessible to sheep, such as 

 islets in lochs and inland cliffs, a few dwarf natural trees 

 may be found — all those I saw were ash, birch, and rowan, 

 but in numbers too scanty to have any influence upon the 

 fauna. Thus, owing to the absence of suitable shelter, the 

 small birds we do find in Shetland are inhabitants of the 

 hills, pastures, and rocks ; and with the single exception of 

 the hardy little wren, we see none of those sylvan species 

 so common farther south. 



Of the larger species of birds, such as the waders, and 

 especially of the sea-fowl, Shetland possesses a long and im- 

 portant list of residents and summer migrants. Several 

 species, rare or local in Britain, nest in the islands, such as 

 the White- tailed Eagle {Halimtos albicilla), Eedthroated 

 Diver {Golymhus septentronalis), Eednecked Phalerope {Phale- 

 ropits liyperhoreus), Arctic Skua {Stercorarius crepidatus), 

 Whimbrel (Numenius phmopus), and one species found no- 

 where else in the British Islands, the Great Skua (Stercorarius 

 catarrades). To these may be added a recent colonist, the 

 Fulmar Petrel (Procellaria glacialis), which I believe has 

 only one other breeding-station in the British seas. 



In view of the interest attaching to local bird names, I 

 give each bird's Shetlandic title immediately after its scien- 

 tific one. Though perhaps not in harmony with the most 

 recent theories of classification, I shall follow in this paper 

 the order adopted in Saxby's " Birds of Shetland," and there- 

 fore will commence with 



