The curlew is here reckoned excellent eating, and much sought after; by some preferred to all other wild-fowl.

GENUS XVIII.-WOODCOCKS, OR SNIPE-KIND.

Gen. Char.-Bill two inches long and upwards; slender, straight, and weak; nostrils straight and linear; tongue pointed, slender; toes divided, or very slightly connected; back toe very small.

Species 1. The Snipe.

The Snipe, or Snite, Wil. Orn. 290. Raii Syn. Av. 105. Scolopax Gallinago, Lin. Sys. 244. Brit. Zool. 358. Brit. Zool. Illus. tab. 71. fig. 1. Orc. Myre-Snipe, Horsegok.

THE Snipe continues with us the whole year; builds in the wet marshy hills, commonly in a tuft of rushes, where it lays from four to six (I have seen the latter number several times) eggs; in winter shifts as well as it can about the sea and spring-heads which are not frozen.

Though small, is very good eating, but seldom above one seen in one place.

In summer it makes an odd drumming noise in the air, which our country folks take for a sign of rain; at this time it is at a great height in the air, flying backwards and for

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wards near the place of its nest; at other times its cry is a short shrill whistling; when hastily sprung, a hoarse scream.

Species 2.-The Jack-Snipe.

Gid, Jack-Snipe, and Judcock, Wil. Orn. 291. Raii Syn. Av. 105. Scolopax Gallinula, Lin. Sys. 224. Brit. Zool. 359. Brit. Zool, Illus. 71.

I NEVER saw above a couple of specimens of the jack-snipe in Orkney, nor do I think it a frequent bird.

The size distinguishes it from the former, as does the flight, which is shorter. But what points it out to every observer is the rump, which is of a fine purple, with a cast of blue, changeable in different lights; the bill is short, the half next the head pale flesh-colour, the point black.

It is found in marshy moors; is difficult to spring, and after fluttering a little about, claps into the nearest hole, or small spring, and lies close. I dare say it builds with us in season, as I have seen it in summer.

Species 3.-The Godwit.

Godwit, Yarwhelp, or Yarwip, Wil. Orn. 290. Raii Syn. Av. 105. Scolopax Egocephala, Lin.. Sys. 246. Brit. Zool. 351.

THIS bird I have very seldom observed in Orkney; is en

tirely a visitor. I have fallen in with small flocks of about a dozen, on our sandy shores in winter, where they feed with the curlew. It seems to be a stupid kind of bird; has nothing of the shyness of the curlew. I have shot several times at the flock, and after killing part, the others, after a small flight, would endure to be shot at several times immediately after.

The flesh is very delicate; seems the best tasted of all our shore birds, quite free from the rankness of some, and the fishy taste of others.

The Greenshank I have seen once on the burn-side of Birsay, in a stormy season, but do not take it to be an inhabitant of these isles, any more than the next-mentioned, but rather transient visitors. I have heard of one or two Woodcocks shot in Orkney, but they make us no regular visits that I can find.

GENUS XIX.-SANDPIPERS.

Gen. Char.-Bill straight, slender, and not an inch and a-half long; nostrils small; tongue slender; toes divided, generally the two outmost connected at bottom by a small membrane.

Species 1.-The Lapwing.

Lapwing, Bastard Plover, or Pewit, Wil. Orn. 307. Raii Syn. Av. 110. Tringa Vanellus, Lin. Sys. 248. Brit. Zool. 360. Sib. Scot. 19. Orc. Teewhoop.

THE Lapwing is of those birds which, in a great measure, withdraw themselves from us in the winter season. I say in a great measure only, for I am informed by a clergyman, sometime minister of Sanda, they are to be found there in small numbers all winter. His words are, "I have seen them "in the months of November, December, and January, in "the bay of Otterswick, and all round the island. This "island lies low is generally flat, and much warmer than any of the others; almost all a sandy beach from the point "of Spurness, north and by west, to the bay of Stove, lying "south and by east, which is near two-thirds of the circum"ference of the whole island." The lapwing is the most beautiful of the genus which frequent these shores. The head is adorned with a fine black crest, erected when the bird walks, and depressed at other times; the head and bill black ; ;; the back and coverts of a most beautiful green, changing to

purple; the lesser coverts have more of a blue cast; the quills black, the ends of the four first marked with a white spot, the lesser ones half white and half black; the breast white, as is the belly; the tail has twelve feathers, the outmost white, with a dusky spot, the others white next the body, the other half black, tipt with white.

The legs red; the throat and part of the breast black, with white spots.

The lapwing is one of the most anxious creatures for its young of any wild-bird I know; in breeding-time nothing frights it; neither men nor dogs can terrify it from its haunts: though a very shy bird at other times, now it will strike at the head of the boldest invader, and, with vast clamour, defends its rights to the marsh. Linnæus says it drives away the ravens, who pick out the eyes of the lambs. I suppose it is perfectly sensible of the manners of the raven, that he often meddles with its own eggs and birds, and thus considers him as its own enemy.

The cry of the lapwing is plaintive, the same note (piwit) repeated; however, the male in breeding-time has another more cheerful note, which he repeats with great briskness when no danger is near, but when this threatens, he has the same plaintive cry as the female.

The lapwing breeds very early (as all the gralla); I have seen their eggs in the beginning of April. It makes a nest on the bare heath, in a small hollow scraped by its own industry; there it lays its eggs, which are four in number, of a dark olive-green, spotted with black, on the bare ground; but