548 Proceedings of the Uoyal Pliy steal Society. 



able to fly. The old birds were very bold, coming swooping 

 round me croaking fiercely, probably seeing I carried no 

 gun. 



20. Hooded Crow {Cormis comix), (Craa). — This destruc- 

 tive bird is very abundant in many districts, and nowhere 

 more so than in the vicinity of Sandness in Walls, where it 

 was to be seen in flocks of nine or ten feeding in the fields. 

 All along the coast, and also inland wherever there were a 

 few rocks, the old nests could be seen. Most of the young 

 broods had flown at the date of my visit, but I found two 

 nests with eggs on low inland rocks. One of these had been 

 visited before, and the eggs partly blown and replaced. This 

 I discovered had been done in the belief that the female 

 would be induced to sit until she died. Of course she did 

 nothing of the kind, and the eggs had been turned out of the 

 nest, and were lying on the turf alongside. Two other nests 

 with young, and many used nests which I came upon in in- 

 land situations, were all very easy of access, several indeed 

 placed under stones on the open moor. 



21. Wren {Troglodytes vulgaris), (Robin), — The reason why 

 the wren should be called the robin in Shetland is not very 

 apparent. The robin is an accidental visitor, while the wren 

 is rather common, and may be found in all sorts of places 

 — now singing sweetly from a stone half-wa}- down a 

 300-foot precipice with the breakers thundering at the base, 

 now creeping in and out of the tangled heather stems 

 fringing some quiet inland loch, or building its nest in the 

 crevices of a fisherman's hut ; everywhere a general favourite. 

 A nest found was built among the heather on a hill- 

 side. 



22. Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). — According to Saxby, the 

 cuckoo occasionally visits Shetland, " sometimes feeling so 

 much at home as to condescend to leave an egg in the nest 

 of some unfortunate meadow pipit or skylark." 



23. Swallow {Rirundo rustica). — Edmondston in his " View 

 of the Zetland Islands " (1809), mentions having seen two 

 swallows in the summer of 1808 ; and Saxby mentions one 

 or two instances of its nesting, but these are rare. 



24. Martin {Chelidon urhicct). — The visits of this bird are 



