Ornithological Observations arid Reflections in Shetland. 367 
obtained must of course, be fish, but whether in its natural 
state or partially digested in the crop, cannot be settled by 
field observation, since the transfer takes place out of sight. 
It is not often, perhaps, that a parent bird feeds its young 
whilst standing with its back to it, but the long flexible neck 
and spare upright figure of the Shag, enables it to do this with 
the greatest ease. Maternal tenderness, however exhibited, 
is always a pleasing thing to witness, and probably no one 
manifestation of it gives greater delight to the beholder than 
this feeding of the young in birds. But there is something in 
the towering and stupendous surroundings — the elemental 
accessories, so to speak — under which it is here performed, that 
renders it doubly and trebly so. The scene of it is the black 
and beetling precipice, against which the sea, with deep and 
sullen sound, ceaselessly heaves and dashes, producing such a 
turmoil as the eye almost shudders to look on. Yet there are 
no waves rushing in, as we know them, for the most part, on 
our English coasts, those long hills of green water, slowly 
curling over and cresting with spray, to break and fall with 
a crash ; only a sullen surge and swell, which, as it heaves upon 
the cliff-line, becomes a very inferno of tossing tumbling foam, 
great spouts of which shoot half way up towards its summit, 
even when the sea is not violent. Sometimes (on rougher 
days) a black jutting bastion of rock, advanced, like a claw, into 
the sea, will absolutely disappear, for some moments , in whiteness 
that seems beyond that of snow. The birds, always measuring 
the distance correctly, stand out of the reach of such inundation, 
but the spray leaps up past them to the very grass upon the 
cliff’s edge, where the wind catches it and distributes it in mist 
and drizzle over the surrounding hill-tops. Amidst such 
showers, in such a vast and horrible commotion, our young 
Shag is fed. It is, I suppose, the contrast between a quiet 
scene of nature, the bona dea’s cherishing love and tenderness 
and her raging blind forces, in which the little picture is 
inset, that adds a piquancy, as it were, to one’s normal appreci- 
ation of it, under less grandiose conditions. 
Oct. 2nd. — Gulls, mostly Herring Gulls, are now feeding on 
(1) small mussels ; (2) the grain of oats from the sheaves* ; 
(3) heather seeds and leaves ; (4) small crabs ; (5) various shell- 
fish. All this is established by the pellets cast by them, which 
are to be seen all about on the summits of the cliffs. One of 
these, which I have first examined with a lens, is composed, 
almost entirely, of the refuse of oat-ears, a few small bits of 
shell alone being mixed with it. This refuse is pronounced 
by the owner of the croft or farm I am staying on to be of 
* So far as this is concerned, what follows applies to the Herring Gull 
only. 11 
1914 Dec. 1. 
