Birds. 9525 



neither egg nor bird was found ; but the following year, early in July, 

 two more eggs were sent to me, and the man who found ihem con- 

 vinced me, by his very accurate descriptiou of the bird, that they were 

 undoubtedly those of the northern diver. Since that time no more 

 eggs appear to have been found, although birds have been seen by me 

 in other parts of the island during the breeding season, and chiefly in 

 fresh-water lochs. In answer to my inquiries concerning the nest, 

 the finder of the eggs informed me that they were discovered " lying 

 upon the bare heather" a ^Qw yards from the edge of a loch in a remote 

 part of the hills, about half a mile Ironi the nearest salt water. The 

 eggs had been so long incubated that it was impossible to blow them 

 in the ordinary manner, and the method of overcoming the difficulty 

 being then unknown to me, the process caused some little disfigure- 

 ment. They are all very similar, both in size and colour, being of a 

 dark, warm olive-brown, with a few scattered spots of umber-brown 

 and dusky gray ; in length they very closely agree with Mr. Hewitson's 

 figure, but two of them are about a line less in breadth. I am not 

 aware that eggs of the redthroated diver have ever been found of similar 

 dimensions, nor is it at all probable that they can be those of the 

 blackthroated diver, a species which is almost, if not entirely, unknown 

 even as an occasional visitor to Shetland. Upon my return to England, 

 I shall be happy to show the eggs to any person who may feel inte- 

 rested in the matter. 



Golden Plover. — The hard weather is driving large numbers of 

 golden plovers to the shore. The black feathers which are peculiar to 

 the summer dress, are already beginning to appear upon the under parts. 



Heji Harrier. — The hen harrier still breeds regularly in some parts 

 of Shetland, but it is only a rare visitor to Unst. After the first fall of 

 snow I observed a beautiful male hovering over some twites in a 

 corn -yard. 



Goldeneye. — The hard frosts having now closed all the lochs, 

 goldeneyes have been driven to the voes, where flocks of thirty and 

 upwards may now be seen. 



Snowy Oivl. — Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, no snowy 

 owls have yet a)ipeared. The individual of this species which has now 

 been in my possession for more than seven months (Zool. 9317) has not 

 yet moulted, only a very few feathers (apparently injured ones) having 

 been cast in autumn. He has been gradually becoming tamer, and 

 until lately very little wish to escape was displa3'ed ; but no sooner did 

 the snow set in than he became restless, and soon, tearing through the 

 net which was in front of the cage, escaped into the outhouse, where 



