54 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



SOME REMARKS ON THE BIRDS SEEN IN THE 

 SOUTH-EAST PART OF THE MAINLAND OF 

 ORKNEY IN OCTOBER, 1899. 



By N. F. Ticehurst, M.A., F.Z.S., &c. 



Having last year to take my holiday somewhat later than 

 usual, I took advantage of a pressing invitation to spend a fort- 

 night with some friends in the parish of St. Mary's Holm, in the 

 south-east part of the mainland of Orkney, for purposes of sport 

 and natural history. As this part of the British Isles was to 

 me quite new ground, and being somewhat out of the way, an 

 account of the birds met with there may perhaps be of interest 

 to those readers of ' The Zoologist ' who are also unacquainted 

 with that part of the world. Of course the first fortnight in 

 October is not altogether a favourable time for observing bird- 

 life, the weather being anything but settled ; and, again, the 

 autumn migrants have hardly begun to arrive, while the summer 

 birds have for the most part left. Three facts, I think, strike 

 one who comes here for the first time from the south, viz. the very 

 few passerine birds seen ; the number of species, and the quantity, 

 of Waders, Gulls, and Wildfowl ; and the tameness of almost all 

 the birds. The last fact, I think, is accounted for by the careful 

 preservation by the large landowners, under the Wild Birds Pro- 

 tection Acts, and the comparatively small number of people 

 who shoot. In fact, the Gulls, &c, have increased so much of 

 late years that the people are beginning to complain. 



The ground for the most part is low and undulating, the 

 higher parts being all moorland, the low ground being either grass 

 or under cultivation ; the crops grown being principally oats, 

 potatoes, and roots. The coast is mostly low and rocky, rising 

 to twenty or forty feet in places, with here and there a sandy or 

 gravelly bay where a small burn enters the sea. At the south- 

 eastern extremity is the rather higher point of Roseness, the 

 cliffs of the east coast gradually rising in height from here, till 



