TO ORKNEY AND SHETLAND. 121 



the most inaccessible parts of small rocks and 

 skerries : their favourite resorts in the breeding- 

 season are deep caverns, where they bring forth 

 their young, generally in October; when the young 

 are three or four days old they are as large as the 

 young of the common seal at several months 5 

 they keep by themselves and never appear to as- 

 sociate with the other species. 



Lutra vulgaris, Erxl. Otter. — Otters are 

 numerous in both countries, frequenting the rocky 

 cliffs in the deep bays or inlets of the sea, occasion-: 

 ally in the winter visiting the inland lakes, more 

 particularly those which communicate by a small 

 rivulet with the sea, and where in that season they 

 principally obtain their food. They have frequently 

 been taken on land in their passage to and from 

 the lakes to the sea. The female in general pro- 

 duces two at a birth. 



I have thus endeavoured, as far as my abilities 

 will permit, to give a short account of the natural 

 history of Shetland and Orkney. Of what service 

 it may be to Ornithological collectors, for whose 

 assistance it is especially intended, time will show, 

 but I can warrant its accuracy as regards the 



G 



