364 
LARID.E. 
are “([iiite scarce.” I have not heard of its occurrence in 
Shetland previously. 
[This scanty notice is all that can he found in the journals 
concerning the bird in question. The only other mention of it 
as occurring in Shetland, that I have been able to discover, is 
in Mr Gray’s “ Birds of the West of Scotland,” p. 505, where 
a MS. note in a copy of Messrs Baikie and Heddle’s catalogue 
of the birds of Orkney, by one of the authors, dating not later 
than 1853, is quoted as saying that this Shearwater has been 
met with in the Shetland Islands. — Ed.] 
THE MANX SHEAEAVATEB. 
Piiffinus Anglorum. 
LYKIE. 
This interesting bird, the ‘‘ Lyre-bird ” of Orkney, usually 
arrives in Shetland at the end of April or in the first days of 
May, and seems to lose no time in going to earth, being almost 
as truly a burrowing animal as any mole or rabbit. The 
earliest intimation of its arrival has repeatedly been brought 
to me by the folk who have taken it from the holes. Oddly 
enough, the fishermen, who have such abundant opportunities 
for observation, most positively assert that the bird is never 
seen abroad in the day-time. That they are wrong, I for one 
can testify. I have seen it at all times of the day, though, so 
far as I can remember, not during the breeding season. Indeed, 
as ]\Ir Gray well remarks, there are few sights more picturesque 
in their way than that of a group of Shearwaters disporting 
themselves in a breeze of wind. The name of the bird seems 
to be derived from its strange habit of suddenly sweeping down 
towards the surface of the water, and ploughing it up with its 
breast.* 
* The splash of tlie Shearwater is quite unlike that of the Tern, and, although 
of course on a smaller scale, exactly resembles that caused by the graze of a 
round shot as it ricochets upon the water. — E d. 
