Autograph Letter Signed ('R. J. Balston') from the ornithologist Richard James Balston of Boxley Abbey, to the Rev. Charles William Shepherd of Maidstone, describing the birds of Lerwick, Shetland Isles, while on a shooting trip with Edward Bartlett.

8pp., 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. With envelope, with Penny Red stamp and circular postmark in black ink ('B | LERWICK | 5 NO | 80'), addressed to 'The Revd. | C. W. Shepherd | Trosley Rectory | N Maidstone | Kent | England'. Balston and his companion on the trip Edward Bartlett would go on to collaborate with Shepherd on the 1907 publication 'Notes on the Birds of Kent'. The letter begins: 'Dear Shepherd | Here we are in the Arctic Regions, & it being Sunday & snowing fast, are not able to get out, so I sit down to spin you a yarn. We reached Aberdeen all right after a tedious journey by rail of 16 hours, we then proceeded by Steamer to Lerwick, which place we reache don Saturday the 16th. at 11. p. m. Sunday was cloudy & very windy but we managed at [sic] walk over to Scalloway & back, about 13 miles altogether'. A letter of introduction to 'Major Cameron' has resulted in the 'required permission to shoot on his property here (Unst). Balston and Bartlett have 'found comfortable lodgings here a sitting room & double bedded room adjoining' Despite the severe weather they have 'got on pretty well at collecting [...] the "oldest inhabitant" does not recollect such weather in October. It has snowed, hailed, & blown hard from the No[rth] ever since we have been here'. The following day they are 'off to Fetlar for 2 or 3 days & we are told there are no end of birds & seals there'. He describes shooting 'a Glaucous Gull the other day, & we have also Black-backed & Herring Gulls, & Golden eyes, 1 crested duck, 1 Teal, Snipe, ringed plovers, 1 purple sandpiper, Redshanks, 1 black Guillemot, 1 Cormorant (green), 1 Turnstone, 2 Golden plovers, Snowflakes, Mountain <?>, Rock Pipits, Hooded Crows, 1 Starling (shot by mistake for a shore bird) but of course we shall shoot some more before we leave! [...] The climate seems to suit us admirably, we eat, drink whiskey, [sic] smoke & sleep like anything - we get up about 8, after Coffee & a pipe in bed breakfast between 9 & 10 - then I go out all day, while Bartlett goes when he is not skinning - we have permission to shoot just where we like without let or hindrance - we dine about 6.30, & afterwards Bartlett skins while I sometimes read Dawkins' Cave Hunting to him & smoke alternately'. He concludes: 'We turned out the other morning for duck before daylight - didnt it snow & blow! wasnt it cold thats all! - & I lost the only one I shot'.