LIDICKER 1972 March 17 cont. So, we went to the air port to try again to get on the flight, but failed. We decided then to try our luck on South Ronaldsay. We drove there & cruised all the roads on all parts of the island looking for farmers moving grain. As it was still very foggy, & quite windy as well, everyone seemed to be spreading manure, plowing, or spraying idios. It was not until 1415 when the sun finally broke through that we succeeded in locating someone. Within 1/2 an hour we had caught 58 mice plus the usual nestlings. Also one R. norvegicus escaped & 4 or 5 large nestlings were found. We also saw two Ornithologists during our driving around the island, both with bad cases of myxomatosis. The farmers at this stack told me that S. Ronaldsay also had "blue rats" - which they admitted were black (probably R. rattus). Decidentally, on Bervane, I talked to a farmer bringing in a wagon load of turnips ("keeps") almost all of which were hollowed out, she said it was rabbits that did done it. Then we drove to Burray, the small island to the north of S. Ronaldsay, & continued our search. We finally found a farmer pitching a stack of barley on to a wagon. We got there only a few minutes before he quit and managed to catch 4 mice. He said that rats were present on Burray but not common. We continued to search Burray until 1550 when we had covered it all. Returned to Kirkwall for early "lighter" & then on to Harray. I checked my 3 Longworth text.