558 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



of between 300 and 400 pairs, wliicli I visited on the 31st 

 May 1887. The kittiwake is a late breeder. At that date 

 only a few had laid ; the majority Tvere busily engaged upon 

 their nests, or chasing each other with shrill screams. They 

 were, at this little visited spot, exceedingly tame, several 

 allowing me to stroke them on the back with the short rod I 

 carried (the two butt joints of an ordinary fishing-rod), and 

 this when the nests, by the side of which they stood, were 

 empty. The nests of the kittiwake are almost invariably 

 exceedingly difficult of access, from the shape of the rocks 

 on which these were built it would be utterly impossible to 

 get many of the nests even with a rope. There is another 

 fine colony of these birds on Eshaness Skerry, near Hills- 

 wick and also a small one of 60 or 70 pairs on Papa- 

 Stour, at the entrance to one of the magnificent caves for 

 which that island is famous. 



60. The Common Gull {Lams canus), (Blue Maa) is by 

 no means common on the mainland. On some of the small 

 islands a little way off' from the land, there are small colonies, 

 but at no place do they ever nest on cliffs, like the herring 

 and lesser black-backed gulls. On the lochs of Walls there 

 are one or two pairs usually on each of those lochs which 

 have little islands in them, and often a single pair at many 

 of the lochs throughout the country. On Hildasay and 

 Oxna, in the Bay of Scalloway, there are a good many. At 

 the latter place the tenant informed me they had been trying 

 to preserve the " maas " for the last tw^o years, and had not 

 been taking the eggs, so that at the date of my visit (15th 

 June) they were all hatched, and the young were running 

 about. In Northmavine I only saw one or two of these 

 gulls ; they do not seem at all numerous in that district. 



61. Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscios), (Saithe 

 Fowl). — This gull is very common, breeding both on the 

 cliffs and also on islets in lochs, and on inland moors, which 

 last two situations are never occupied by the herring gull in 

 this county. On the common breeding stations of the two 

 species this gull is invariably much scarcer than the herring 

 gull. From numerous counts at various places all round the 

 coasts, I estimate the proportion on an average as 15 per cent, 

 of the lesser black-back to 85 per cent, herring gulls. Tlie 



