The Zoologist — October, 1874. 4167 



having for twenty-five years kept an almost daily register of such 

 ornithological occurrences as he considered worth recording. 



The 'Birds of Shetland' is compiled, as it ought to be, in the 

 form of an annotated list of species, and not as a diary. Although 

 such a diary is repeatedly mentioned, and although extracts from 

 it appear on almost every page, the arrangement of the matter is 

 systematic, Mr. Yarrell's familiar classification and names being 

 rigidly followed. To myself this list would have been more satis- 

 factory if all reference to species not having a positive claim to a 

 place in the work had been omitted altogether. I should have 

 preferred, for instance, the non-appearance of that grand bird the 

 golden eagle, which now stands at the head of the list : there is the 

 strongest presumptive evidence that this species has visited Shet- 

 land; the author firmly believes such visits take place, but still he 

 has never obtained a specimen. It may be said that it is of little 

 or no consequence whether or no a bird that can readily fly a mile 

 in a couple of minutes has actually alighted on these remote islands, 

 but we must recollect the same argument might be applied in a 

 number of other cases. The evidence in every case has to be 

 carefully sifted and considered, and unless the specimen be abso- 

 lutely obtained it is perhaps the wiser plan to omit it altogether. 

 Whatever hesitation we may feel in admitting the golden eagle, 

 there can be no doubt about the whitetailed, a bird which has 

 frequently been seen, and the remains of whose nests still exist at 

 Lund, in the island of Unst; and it may be remarked in passing that 

 wherever such a fragment is perceived, or even fancied, throughout 

 the islands of these northern seas, it is invariably pointed out as the 

 nest to which the world-renowned baby was carried in days of yore. 

 The following paragraph illustrates the boldness with which this 

 bird formerly sought its prey: — 



"This species is scarcely so shy as the golden eagle. It cannot be 

 considered more courageous, for I have seen it driven away from a village 

 by a single arctic skua ; but probably its greater familiarity with the haunts 

 of men renders it more confident. At the breeding season, however, 

 necessity compels it to become less shy and even daring. In the year 1868 

 a pair which had newly hatched were a great annoyance to the neighbour- 

 hood of Balta Sound, although the nest was about eight miles distant in a 

 straight line. So bold did they become at last that they would carry off 

 poultry from the cottage-doors when the men were at the fishing, treating the 

 women and children with the utmost contempt. Some years ago, one of the 



