SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



3*5 



ORCADIAN RAMBLES. 



By Robert Godfrey. 



(Continued from page 2S7.) 



V. — Kirkwall to Tankerness. 



T EAYIXG the town by the road that runs 

 between the Cathedral and the Earl's Palace, 

 en May 31st. I kept the telegraph-lined highway 

 till I had passed the headland that juts out to 

 Holland. The country traversed presented a series 

 of dissolving views, each passing into the succeeding 

 one before its own beauty had completely gone, 

 and the everchanging novelty of the landscape 

 maintained the interest of the traveller. Each tract 

 covered contained its distinctive wild life also ; but 

 could not, by a consideration of such, be divided 

 by definite lines from adjoining tracts. Ere we 

 leave the sparrows and the jackdaws behind us, we 

 are listening to the carolling of the larks or the 

 ceaseless craking of the corncrakes, and we are 

 accompanied by these in their turn even after we 

 have invaded the breeding-haunts of peeweeps, 

 redshanks and ring plovers. 



I descended to the hollow skirting the head of 

 Inganess Bay, and after crossing a small burn that 

 there gains the sea, I turned along the southern 

 shore of the bay. Pied wagtails were very 

 obtrusive, and evidently feeding young, though 

 they would not go to the nest whilst I waited, and a 

 single twite was singing on a telegraph-wire. At 

 this part the shore of the bay was a low, sinuous, 

 grass-clad bank, behind which, with only a narrow 

 breadth of pasture between, lay the cultivated 

 ground, and on the occasion of my visit the sea 

 was calm and smooth, and broke in a gentle 

 whisper on the flat rocks. Rock pipits were the 

 prevailing bird-life here, and flitted about from rock 

 to rock in restless excitement, carrying food in 

 their bills the 'Anile. Two eider drakes were the 

 first birds observed on the water, and a duck, 

 disturbed by my advance, swam away from land 

 and joined their company A third eider drake 

 appeared further off, and repeatedly thereafter 

 toe characteristic subdued moaning of this species 

 reached my ear A '.'.mmon cormorant, too, rose 

 and flew to a more distant position, and a 

 seal, far from the land, delighted me by its silent 

 appearances and disappearances, leaving no ripple 

 r.e surface to tell a here it sank. 

 The shore became rr. 



\e but lit- ■ h-watcr mark 



by at narrow path only, 



I with abni lei in one 



part a lara;e net- 

 routed a beautiful dari 



- rather out of place in lucfa a I 



On rinding my pursuit to be vain, I turned my 

 attention again to the birds. A group of peeweeps 

 passed out seawards and returned, and a starling 

 rose from the beach, whilst a ring plover ran along 

 the shore before me. Presently a mallard drake 

 rose ; a little further on a widgeon drake in brilliant 

 plumage appeared near the shore, and an unknown 

 duck flew off. Here an Arctic tern and a cormo- 

 rant also came under my notice. The place had 

 suddenly become alive with a fine variety of 

 birds, and I knew that all my silence and patience 

 would be needed. Presently the strange duck 

 returned and alighted near the widgeon, but did not 

 associate with it; it was smaller than a widgeon, 

 and resembled a shoveler, but had not sufficient 

 white on the plumage. Further oft' shore a pair 

 of mergansers were swimming — the drake a most 

 handsome bird — and, without warning, a seal 

 appeared amongst the seaweed close at hand, 

 and tore through it at a fearful rate. My little 

 duck had gone, I knew net whither, and I had 

 failed to identify him. In the absence of wind 

 the day was close, but the bright sun revealed 

 everything in its fairest form, and the calmness of 

 the sea rendered observation easy. One cannot 

 help himself in the midst of scenes like these ; one 

 loiters on in happiness, forgetful of all else in the 

 pure joy of nature, lingering willingly amidst 

 such enthralling delights, and with difficulty tear- 

 ing oneself from the siren spell that keeps one 

 bound. 



Where the roadway diverges from the sea, some 

 rough ground lines the succeeding stretch of shore, 

 and here ring plovers, with gentle call, kept 

 reproving me for my trespass, whilst occasionally 

 an Arctic tern or a peeweep would excitedly call 

 overhead. I found a dead merganser drake, and 

 saw a few eiders, but did not again meet with the 

 stranger duck. On passing round the low-lying 

 headland I came to a shallow arm of the sea with 

 a narrow entrance, and halted at the mouth, on 

 ■ ' ile of which a long, narrow, stony 

 point runs landwards, creating the barrier that 

 nearly I pendent loch. On this stony 



( land tin: Arctic terns had evidently 

 a colony, as they kept up a constant flutter "I 

 excitement over the polnl ben theh egga tin 

 1 1 ■ dari undi i plui iagi ■ >i i be 



and the more 1 1 nl is call-noti helped 



ii the »pei li 1 bul I /alted till two 

 alighted on sea..' me to 





