go Ornithological Observations in Shetland. 



down upon extended pinions against the face of the precipice,, 

 in order to enter. When a single one does this, one might 

 think, at a little distance, that it was one of the hawk tribe, 

 in pursuit perhaps, of the tenants of the cavern, instead of, 

 itself, one of these. 



October 14.TH. — I make out the coloration of the vast 

 mass of the Kittiwakes, here, to be as follows : — viz., head,, 

 neck, breast, neutral surface and tail, white ; back and wings, 

 a pretty mauve colour, something that of the Rock Dove, but 

 the primary quills or some portion of them from their tips 

 backwards, are black, whilst the feathers bordering the upper 

 part of the wing, on its inner side (that towards the tail) are 

 white. The beak is black or blackish, and does not seem 

 large, thus contributing, with the blueish or mauvy coloration^, 

 to the dove-like appearance of these pretty birds. The eye 

 black. The legs seem to be of a dull slaty hue — not conspic- 

 uous or gaudy. The above is through the glasses, from some 

 two hundred yards or so. It is principally the beak, therefore, 

 which shows these birds not to be mature. 



It is, to-day (near noon) as yesterday morning, but the 

 number of Kittiwakes — eighty odd — is not so great ; there 

 has been more time for some to disperse. Twice has the 

 whole assembly— to a Kittiwake, I think, the second time, at 

 least — risen as by a <£*?///>/ — that simultaneous common impulse, 

 which the Athenians of old, noted as sometimes sweeping over 

 popular human assemblies — flown out over the waters of the 

 loch, wheeled and disported a little above them, and then all 

 flown back again. Now (before I have finished the above 

 entry) they do so a third time. The whole troop rise together 

 from entire placidity, fly softly and in perfect silence, out to 

 about the middle of the loch, and, without any wheeling or 

 skimming, turn and fly softly back again. One spirit at one 

 time has actuated every bird in the troop, for not one has 

 stayed behind, and all seemed to rise at one instant. When 

 I say not one, I mean of the Kittiwakes, for one Herring Gull 

 has stayed. 



How are these facts to be accounted for ? The actions 

 of the birds did not at all suggest that they were alarmed, 

 nor was there anything that I cou.d observe to alarm them. 

 Yet the conditions were such that I could hardly have failed 

 to note anything of an alarming nature, had it been at all 

 violent or salient, and nothing that I can think of, not answering 

 this description, could have caused so many birds, scattered 

 over so considerable a space of ground to rise thus, unanimously, 

 as I have described. Before I had spent much time in watching 

 birds, I was under the impression, as I believe most people 

 are, that if one or two, or a few, of a number collected together, 

 take genuine alarm, and rise in precipitate flight, the rest will. 



Naturalist,. 



