Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 379 
itself off from some high rock or promontory to make just one 
circle and alight there again, would have to be recognised as 
the first step towards that supreme dominion of the air, which, 
for the non-predaceous naturalist and the appreciative portion 
of mankind in general, make the ‘ King of Bird’s ’ crowning 
glory. 
I suggest that, considered in the light of the facts which 
I have recorded, what is here imagined is very likely to have 
been the case, not with all soaring species of birds, indeed, or 
perhaps with the Eagle, but with some or other of them. At 
any rate here is an actually observed beginning, and early 
stages, going some way along a path that seems to lead to 
the end in question. Another interesting point arises in 
considering the initial motive or impulse influencing these 
Shags to make their little circling flights out from the rock, 
instead of standing there as usual, till they fly down to fish in 
the sea. Inasmuch as I have not observed them doing so 
except upon stormy days, it has appeared to me either that 
the birds become pleasureably excited by a strong wind, or 
that they take the opportunity of utilising it in this way. The 
latter, however, is part of the observation, but I believe that 
the excitement comes first. Now a bird’s power of soaring is 
largely dependent upon the wind. Even an Eagle, as I have 
observed, has to flap heavily along on a perfectly still day. 
Probably, then, these Shags could not have floated as they did, 
unless with the help of a fair wind, but the state of excitement 
which this produced in them, seemed to me evident, and to 
increase as it grew higher. In the case of this species, therefore, 
should it ever, along the lines indicated, become a recognised 
soarer, a certain emotional element would have produced the 
first step in the utilisation of natural forces leading to this end. 
Whether this will ever be the case who can say ? but it seems 
to me not unlikely that the Shag will become in time more 
aerial in its habits, even as the Frigate Bird and Solan Goose 
have become, possibly in a similar way. The general theory 
is that habits have been brought about through natural 
selection, in relation to the welfare of the species. From my 
own observation, however, I cannot help thinking that some 
may have had their origin in a trick or proclivity, or through 
some unexpected and curious channel standing in no very close 
relation to the mode of life, or, at anv rate, to the more im- 
portant matters in such mode of life, of the species in which 
they obtain, though they may have been afterwards worked 
in, in conformity with these. Such inconsequential habits, 
as one may term them, might, notwithstanding, persist as 
being rooted in a creature’s psychology, which would, for long, 
be a permanent factor. In other words they are not really 
inconsequential, as, in fact, nothing is. 
1914 Dec. 1. 
