Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/80

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last year to take my holiday somewhat later than usual, I took advantage of a pressing invitation to spend a fortnight with some friends in the parish of St. Mary's Holm, in the south-east part of the mainland of Orkney, for purposes of sport and natural history. As this part of the British Isles was to me quite new ground, and being somewhat out of the way, an account of the birds met with there may perhaps be of interest to those readers of 'The Zoologist' who are also unacquainted with that part of the world. Of course the first fortnight in October is not altogether a favourable time for observing birdlife, the weather being anything but settled; and, again, the autumn migrants have hardly begun to arrive, while the summer birds have for the most part left. Three facts, I think, strike one who comes here for the first time from the south, viz. the very few passerine birds seen; the number of species, and the quantity, of Waders, Gulls, and Wildfowl; and the tameness of almost all the birds. The last fact, I think, is accounted for by the careful preservation by the large landowners, under the Wild Birds Protection Acts, and the comparatively small number of people who shoot. In fact, the Gulls, &c, have increased so much of late years that the people are beginning to complain.

The ground for the most part is low and undulating, the higher parts being all moorland, the low ground being either grass or under cultivation; the crops grown being principally oats, potatoes, and roots. The coast is mostly low and rocky, rising to twenty or forty feet in places, with here and there a sandy or gravelly bay where a small burn enters the sea. At the south-eastern extremity is the rather higher point of Roseness, the cliffs of the east coast gradually rising in height from here, till