54 THE OENITHOLOGIST. 



of scouring the braes on each weekly holiday during the season, 

 supported by a terrier dog and a shrill whistle, when no doubt 

 every nest of Hen Harrier, Short-eared Owl and Merlin would 

 be ruthlessly swept up. But to return to the Hen Harrier. 

 We came across the male bird one day when out on the hills, 

 and having watched him on the sky-line of the hills above us 

 for a bit, he undoubtedly betrayed the whereabouts of the nest 

 by hovering some seventy or eighty feet in the air, and on 

 proceeding to the spot over which his attention appeared to 

 be directed, the female rose from her eggs about ten or a dozen 

 yards to my right. The nest, which contained five eggs, was 

 not, as usual, in thick heather, but placed in the open, though 

 just beneath a slight ridge. The eggs were but slightly in- 

 cubated (May 29th). 1 We saw two or three more Harriers 

 subsequently, but only one Short-eared Owl. 



We observed a Pintail Duck on a loch in Sanday, and 

 I believe satisfied ourselves, by inquiring, that it was not a 

 pinioned bird. 



I found a nest of the Ringed Plover (Mgialitis hiaticula) 

 upon a heap of dry horse-dung — surely a curious site ! 



It may perhaps be worth mentioning that the two or three 

 clutches of eggs of the Lapwing (Vanellus vulgaris) which we 

 examined, each contained one egg very far advanced in incu- 

 bation, the remaining three being apparently fresh, though no 

 doubt in fact unfertile. 



We were interested in watching a pair of Turnstones 

 (Strepsilas intrepres) busily engaged on the shingle near the 

 holms of Ire, Sanday, but there was no evidence that they 

 were breeding (2nd June). 



One very wet day (June 3rd) we observed a male Shoveler 

 (Spatula clypeata) on Loch Longmary in Sanday. 



On a certain loch in a certain island we observed two, 

 probably three, pairs of the red-necked Phalarope (Phal. hyper- 

 boreus). These birds will allow of the close approach of an 

 intruder. I will not contribute farther towards the extinction 

 as a British breeding species of this rare and confiding little 

 bird ; we satisfied ourselves that they had not yet got eggs 

 (June 4.) 



The Arctic Tern (Sterna macrura) breeds here in numerous 



