286 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ORCADIAN RAMBLES. 



By Robert Godfrey. 



{Continued from page 262.) 

 IV. — Bird-Life around Kirkwall. 



A If AY 2Sth opened raw and misty, and suggested 

 the advisability of my changing quarters 

 rather than remaining inactive. Accordingly I 

 took the mail-boat to Scapa, from which place 

 a good road, of a little over a mile in length, leads 

 to Kirkwall. The region there was well-cultivated, 

 with no bleak aspect in the nearer ground, though 

 here and there the cornlands were intersected with 

 strips of pasture, and a guardian range of hills, 

 half hidden by mist, rose on my left. In front, the 

 imposing spire of St. Magnus Cathedral formed a 

 prominent landmark, and the short distance to the 

 town, presenting little of novelty, was soon covered. 

 Just before entering Kirkwall I heard a sedge- 

 warbler singing amongst some flags by the side 

 of a little stream ; otherwise, I had as com- 

 panions the ever-constant larks, with corncrakes 

 and buntings. 



After procuring a room, I wandered out of town 

 to inspect the woodlands in its neighbourhood, 

 hoping to meet with some of the more recent 

 colonists amongst their bird life. Though Orkney 

 is by no means so bleak as Shetland, it is unsuited 

 to the proper cultivation of trees, and contains very 

 few plantations worthy of notice. These fewi 

 however, have proved attractive resorts for wood- 

 land species of birds, and have no doubt tempted 

 many a migrant to linger within their precincts. 

 During a flying visit to Grainbank in 1896 I heard 

 a warbler, which I considered to be a blackcap, 

 singing within the shelter of some thick undergrowth, 

 but my efforts to catch a glimpse of it from the 

 road were unavailing. On the present occasion I 

 was exceedingly anxious to meet with this stranger 

 again, and naturally turned towards Grainbank 

 first. I rested on the verge of the plantation to 

 wait for some strange note, but I heard nothing 

 save the ceaseless chirruping of sparrows and the 

 song of a blackbird. Mist was hanging on the 

 hills at the time, but whether this had any effect 

 in silencing birds I cannot tell. 



After an unavailing wait here, I turned towards 

 Muddiesdale, and gaining access to its privacy, 

 lingered there undisturbed, and noted carefully its 

 bird life. This plantation is hemmed in by a dyke 

 on every side, and is in the main a fine grassy park 

 occupied by trees not too closely placed together. 

 The chief trees were larch, though a few sycamore, 

 hawthorn, beech and other kinds also occur. As 

 at Grainbank, sparrows prevailed, but soon another 

 note struck on my ear, and, following it up, I 



came on a nestling robin by the side of the little 

 burn that trickles through the wood. I sat down 

 on the bank to allow of the birds resuming their 

 normal activity, and in a short time heard a 

 yellowhammer repeatedly sing, and a blackbird 

 also. I found a blackbird's nest torn out of a tree, 

 and shortly afterwards frightened a greenfinch 

 from her nest, with four eggs, in a larch. A careful 

 search revealed only one other occupied nest, a 

 blackbird's with three eggs, also situated in the 

 crown of a low larch. I failed to find any larger 

 species tenanting the wood, though I came on the 

 castings of an owl containing the remains of field- 

 voles, and picked up a single pigeon's feather. 

 Starlings were flying about commonly, and an 

 occasional redshank or peeweep would call in 

 passing over, whilst robin, greenfinch and yellow- 

 hammer repeatedly uttered their distinctive notes. 

 The breeze blowing through the trees, and the 

 bright sun now dispelling the morning mist, 

 rendered the wood a delightfully refreshing spot, 

 but the comparative paucity of life within its 

 bounds was disappointing to one whose day-dreams 

 had beforehand raised expectation so high. 



Around Kirkwall cultivated ground prevails, and 

 the bird-life does not greatly differ, except in being 

 less varied, from that met with in similar haunts 

 farther south. Rooks and jackdaws are common 

 about the town, whilst starlings simply swarm, 

 and buntings, corncrakes, twites and other species 

 are comparatively abundant. At a distance of 

 three miles or less from town, however, the 

 cultivated land gives way to pasture and heather 

 hills ; these surpass the hills within easy range of 

 Stromness in their excellent covering of heather 

 and rushes, which is in many parts knee-deep, and 

 offers most enticing retreats for skulking birds. In 

 bird-life the most conspicuous difference lay in the 

 relative numbers of the peeweep ; this species, so 

 abundant all about Stromness, was, by comparison, 

 rare around Kirkwall, and altogether absent from 

 parts of the hills. Golden-plover and meadow- 

 pipit were the chief inhabitants of the hills, and 

 starlings nested in the ground as on the Orphirs. 

 Redshanks and snipe frequented the lower-lying 

 portions, and a curlew in breeding excitement 

 closely attended me on the hills. A few grouse 

 also found shelter in the splendid heather, and a 

 pair of shelducks may have had their nest in some 

 hole there, as I watched them come up from the 

 sea, and later on saw only one of the pair return. 



