SKUAS IN THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 3 
Orkney, and whose son, lately deceased, was an excellent collector. 
Many will recollect Mr. Hewitson’s energetic denunciation of 
this “atrocity” (‘Eggs of British Birds,’ ii., page 505), but like 
some other atrocities, I believe it was much exaggerated, and, at 
all events, that Dunn was by no means the sole offender. There 
can, however, be no doubt that the Great Skua’s numbers were 
much diminished, but it is quite possible that their total extermi- 
nation has been too easily believed in. There is a great deal 
of human nature in Shetland, and next to having Skuas on one’s 
property, the next pleasure is to believe and assert that no 
one else has any. Thanks to Dr. Saxby and the Edmonstone 
family, the birds of the Island of Unst are far better known 
to us than those of any other, but the remoter portions of the 
other islands are still unexplored by the ornithologist, and they 
would amply repay investigation, not merely as regards Skuas, 
but many other species. 
Although Unst is the most accessible of the breeding-places 
of the Great Skua, their stronghold is in the small island of 
Foula, the most westerly of the group. There on the mist- 
drenched storm-swept summit, from 1100 to 1300 feet above the 
sea, is the real home of the Skua, and long is it likely to continue 
the lord of that domain. A few eggs are, doubtless, taken every 
year and sold in Lerwick by a venerable native of Foula, but 
it has to be done surreptitiously, and woe betide any of the 
few inhabitants or any visitor who may be detected in touching 
either eggs or birds when Mr. John Scott, of Melby, at present a 
minor of about six feet high, and pugnacious to boot, attains his 
majority. There is not a gamekeeper in the United Kingdom 
more jealous of his pheasants than the Scotts are of their Skuas. 
Foula is also very difficult of access, owing to the stormy seas 
which surround it; the landing, generally difficult, is frequently 
impossible (the sailing-boat carrying the vicarious mail was 
wrecked whilst I was in Shetland), and an excursion thither can 
hardly be made for less than five pounds; so that, all things 
considered, the Skuas are tolerably safe there. In the Faroe 
Islands, whence our principal supply of birds and eggs has of 
late years been derived, they are, I fear, becoming annually 
scarcer, for although partially protected on their breeding-grounds 
by some of the proprietors, the bird is in the proscribed list 
of species on which a “ neb-toll ” is paid by the Danish authorities, 
