The Su/iimer Birds of Shetland. 557 



56. Arctic Tern (Sterna macrura), (Tirrock). — This lively 

 and beautiful little tern is generally diffused throughout the 

 whole archipelago, usually nesting on the small islands lying 

 off shore. One such situation, where I am told it is very 

 abundant, is the Ve Skerries, about four miles noith-west of 

 Papa-Stour. Ve comes from a Norse word signifying danger, 

 and the skerries (which are a great haunt of the " Haaf fish " — 

 Haliclucrus gryplius) have the reputation of seldom belying 

 their title. No doubt the natives are in the habit of exagger- 

 ating the inaccessibility of these places, but I think it is 

 little exagorerated in reo'ard to these rocks. The small islands 

 in the Bay of Scalloway are a favourite haunt. At West Loch, 

 in Hildasay, there was a colony of about 100 pairs, and on 

 all the other islands a few. They breed very late ; on the 

 15th of June they had only begun to lay, {^Note. — The 

 Common Tern {S. fluviatilis) has not, so far as I am aware, 

 been yet detected in Shetland.] 



57. Black Tern {Hydrochelidon nigra). — One record of this 

 bird's occurrence in Shetland, which will be found on p. 446 

 of the Zoologist for 1844, is the only one known to nie. 

 This record is by Thomas Edmondston. 



58. Black-headed GuU {Larus ridibmidus).— This is the 

 rarest of the resident gulls in Shetland, according to Edmond- 

 ston and Saxby a few pairs only nesting at one or two locali- 

 ties. Edmondston says ("View of the Zetland Islands," 

 p. 284) : " A few pairs of this gull come regularly every 

 year to Zetland during the breeding season. They frequent 

 the flat, gravelly shores of deep bays, appear familiar, and 

 are very seldom molested." I did not observe this species, 

 but Mr Scott of Melby informs me that he sometimes sees a 

 few in the summer. 



59. Kittiwake (Eissa tridaciyla), (Waeg). — The graceful 

 kittiwake is exceedingly abundant in Shetland, collecting 

 during the breeding season at some half-dozen colonies, at 

 several of which their numbers are to be counted by thou- 

 sands, if not tens of thousands. Unst, Eoula, and Noss are 

 the chief stations. At the latter the sandstone escarpments 

 from 50 feet above sea-level up to 300 feet out of the total 

 height of 592 feet are covered with the kitti wakes and their 

 nests. On one of the Eamna Stacks there is a small colony 



