355 
ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND 
REFLECTIONS IN SHETLAND.* 
EDMUND SELOUS. 
Got here yesterday (Sept. 26th), and walked out along the coast 
to-day. There were no Red-Throated Divers either on the sea or 
on any loch that I passed, or flying inland. Shags were standing 
on the face of the precipice where any roughness or inequality 
of the surface had made a sufficient alcove, jutty or “ coign 
of vantage ” for them. Such places show darker against the 
general level, making patches upon it which the birds them- 
selves resemble, though darker still. Thus, until the glasses 
reveal them, their presence might long be unsuspected, yet one 
must suppose that this protective effect of the birds’ dark, 
though sheeny, plumage, in combination with the shadow 
thrown by it upon the rock, is fortuitous, unless, indeed, it 
has been gained (but against what adequate enemies ?) in 
combination with a considerable amount of sexual adornment, f 
In watching the birds, thus perched, it is often difficult to 
distinguish shadow from substance, so that either there seem 
to be two figures, with a duplicate set of motions, or else — a 
more frequent and bizarre effect — the one seems double- 
headed. 
Whilst some of these Shags thus cling to the sheer rock, 
others prefer a steep slope surmounting the cliff, with the 
grassy summit which crowns it. There they stand or squat — • 
often within a foot of one another — but the latter attitude, 
though one might suppose it to be much more luxurious, 
is not so frequently adopted as the upright one. Beyond a 
quiet enjoyment of one another’s society, as one must imagine, 
little of feeling or emotion is to be detected at these gatherings, 
but sometimes one bird will make a sudden little run at 
another, and then at a second, and, perhaps, third, driving 
them a foot or two from their places, and then desisting, as 
though he thought it incumbent upon him to assert himself a 
little, without any ulterior object — at least such, if it exists, 
is not discernable. It is only by chance, if at all, that any of 
the vacated places are taken by the demonstrating bird — one. 
* The following notes were made during a stay in Shetland in 1911. 
| This, however, is a class of combination which appears to me quite 
possible in Nature, and has not perhaps been sufficiently considered. 
One selective agency would put a limit to the brightness, and the other 
to the plainness of a bird’s plumage at the point when either became 
less advantageous to it than the other. Thus two advantages might be 
gained, so that mistaking a Scarlet Flamingo for a sunset or a Swan for a 
white mist need not be decisive against sexual selection. 
1914 Nov. 1. 
