4272 THE ZooLoGisT—JANUARY, 1875. 
a sitting, on the Farn Islands for years to come. In Shetland also, 
if not increasing, it is certainly not diminishing in numbers, at least 
not in the “ North Isles,’—a term frequently employed by Dr.Saxby 
as the “collected designation of Yell, Unst and Fetlar, as dis- 
tinguished from the Mainland.” In the breeding season the 
numerous males swimming about the shores of the little islets give 
assurance that the females are engaged in the domestic duty of 
incubating, and that the species is safe for years to come. These 
little isles, when flat and well covered with rank herbage, are their 
favourite breeding-places, but Dr. Saxby says— 
“T have also seen nests on the hills several hundred feet above the sea- 
level, but always near water. In the latter case the young are not taken to 
the sea immediately after they are hatched, but are allowed time to gather 
some strength previously. This scarcely bears out the idea that the mother 
carries them to the water one by one in her beak, as some assert, a fact 
which I have always doubted, never having heard any other than untrust- 
worthy persons affirm that they had actually seen the performance. Indeed, 
any one who is acquainted with the habits of the blackbacked and herring 
gulls will readily agree that the eider duck is far too wise to leave first the 
birds in the nest and then those in the water alternately to their tender 
mercies, unconsciously illustrating the celebrated fable of the fox, the goose 
and the basket of corn. Even when the young brood are directly under the 
eye of the mother, the gulls are always upon the watch, endeavouring by 
their cries and threatening gestures to compel them to separate, yet too 
cowardly to approach their equally watchful guardian, who, with ruffled 
feathers, open beak and repeated angry rushes through the water, in truth 
contrives to give herself a very formidable appearance.”—P. 249. 
The beautiful longtailed duck is, with the single exception of 
the common wild duck, the most common of all the duck tribe that 
visit Shetland. It arrives in September or October, and remains 
throughout the winter in all parts of the coast, but in some seasons 
is exceptionally scarce,—a phenomenon which Dr. Saxby ex- 
plains, rationally enough, by suggesting that the high-bred and 
delicate “calloos” dislike to associate with the low-lived and fetid 
shags. Whether the fact is so, whether the antipathy to such 
company really exists, this deponent sayeth not: it is a pleasant 
fancy to believe in its existence. “The scarcity of these ducks in 
certain winters used to puzzle me greatly until the fishermen 
explained the reason, which I afterwards proved to be correct. It 
appears that, with a very proper feeling readily to be understood 
