INTRODUCTION. 



Having frequently sustained considerable 

 loss and inconvenience in my business from 

 the want of fine examples of many of our 

 native water-birds, I came to the determi- 

 nation, in the early part of 1831, of visiting 

 the Orkney and Shetland Islands, for the 

 purpose of procuring some of the rarer 

 kinds, being well aware that as these islands 

 are the most northerly of the British Isles, 

 and the nearest to Norway and Iceland, 

 they must consequently be the first places 

 of resort for birds migrating from those 

 countries, some few of which never migrate 

 further to the southward, but remain there 

 and breed, in consequence of their being 

 but little disturbed, the inhabitants few 

 in number, the ground in general not ad- 

 mitting of much cultivation, and the is- 



