In

I

writer," was never known to fly, the wings being too short to carry a weight seldom under, but often above, sixteen pounds." spite of its weight, however, the bird flies with great speed. have frequently seen it at the close of day rise from the extremity of sea-lochs at a distance of many miles from the open sea, and after getting fairly on wing, direct its flight seawards with tremendous swiftness, as if impelled by a gale of wind. On these occasions it follows herrings and other fishes into the lochs, which it penetrates to their narrowest recesses until satisfied, after which it seems to realize the danger of remaining there during the night, and takes the safer course of returning to its 'home on the rolling deep.' At various times I have seen Great Northern Divers caught in salmon nets: two very fine specimens, in full breeding dress, were captured in this way at Girvan in the second week of May, 1869. In its submarine flights, this bird is not proof against accident from contact with the legitimate inhabitants below. In November, 1860, some fishermen belonging to Ackergill, while pursuing their ordinary avocations in Sinclair Bay, Caithness, had their attention directed to a large fish struggling on the surface of the water at no great distance from their boat. On rowing towards it they found to their surprise that it was a large sea-devil or angler (Lophius piscatorius) which had closed its capacious jaws on a Great Northern Diver, but had been unable to swallow more than the head and neck. With its widely extended wings the bird was frantically thrashing the water, and effectually resisting the equally frantic efforts of the Devil' to get him under the surface. By the use of a boat-hook, the "whole affair," as one of the fishermen described it, was hauled in triumph over the gunwale, and the bird, which was still alive, at once released. The probability is that the Diver, in descending to the floor of the sea in quest of crustacea and other marine animals on which it feeds, had accidentally thrust its head into the open jaws of the fish, which, as is well known, conceals itself at the bottom by stirring up the mud and sand with its abdominal fins, and keeps its huge mouth prepared to receive any inquiring fishes that may happen to swim to the spot to find out the cause of the disturbance.

* The largest and heaviest Great Northern Diver I have seen was killed in Stornoway Bay, island of Lewis, in the spring of 1866. It weighed twelve pounds, and another killed at the same time and place, which I also saw, weighed eleven pounds and a-half.

THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER.

COLYMBUS ARCTICUS.

Learga.

WHEN seen decked in its beautiful summer plumage, it may fairly be questioned if there is a finer or more striking bird in the entire range of British ornithology than the Black-throated Diver. There is something in its appearance which at once captivates the most careless, and when caught alive by the fishermen, who sometimes find a stray specimen on their lines, and in salmon or herring nets, it is taken home in triumph as an object of beauty, and carefully bargained into the hands of the nearest collector. Many times I have seen these lovely captives carried about for disposal at fishing towns on both the eastern and western coasts of Scotland. They seem to come shorewards in May, and remain a short distance from land, travelling northwards, especially on the west coast, until they slip off unperceived about the same time as their ally the great northern diver. A number of pairs take up their summer quarters on various lochs on the mainland, in Argyllshire, Perthshire, Inverness-shire, Ross-shire, and Sutherlandshire; and on almost every loch in the Outer Hebrides there are to be found one or two pairs breeding. In Lewis they may be seen on Loch Langhabat, and similar sheets of water, and in North Uist I know of at least five different lakes where they breed. Benbecula can likewise boast of several breeding stations. I have seen both old and young birds there in September. The spots selected for nidification on these solitary patches of water are generally small rocky islets, and occasionally a spit of land or stony promontory stretching some distance into the lake. There is no nest-the eggs being merely placed on the ground, and near the water, often not eighteen or twenty inches from it. When the young are hatched, the parent birds lead them away almost directly, especially if in the slightest way molested, and throughout the entire breeding season, indeed, this species is remarkably shy. Sometimes, by close and careful watching, and keeping strictly concealed, one may get near enough to distinguish a family group as they are fishing together on the lakes about sunset. I have myself managed to come upon them unperceived when so engaged, and a more beautiful group of birds could not be imagined. Immediately on

W. Sinclair, del.

being noticed, however, their bodies were lowered, and their heads turned to the other side of the lake; then their swimming powers were seen to great advantage as they hastened out of danger. In dry seasons, especially, their extraordinary cry frequently startles the lonely traveller as he passes their haunts, making the still waters resound with strange echoes from their rocky embankments. The natives of Benbecula and North Uist compare it to “Deoch! deoch! deoch! tha'n loch a traoghadh," which may be interpreted by the words, "Drink! drink! drink! the lake is nearly dried up."

Apart from these Hebridean summer haunts of the Blackthroated Diver, the most interesting breeding places are unquestionably the lochs of Sutherlandshire, where Sir William Jardine and the late Mr Selby discovered the nest in 1834. Mr Selby's notes having been communicated to Mr Yarrell, and published in that author's History of British Birds,' it is unnecessary to repeat them here; but as allusion is made to Mr James Wilson's discovery of a nest and two young ones on Loch Craggie, near Lairg, the following particulars by that pleasing writer, which I have not seen quoted in any ornithological work, may not be unacceptable to general readers:-"The Black-throated Diver (Colymbus arcticus) is a bird of large size and singular beauty. It almost invariably builds on the small low islands of inland lakes, preferring those with flat or somewhat open shores to such as are precipitous or rock-bound. The first time we ever encountered the species in its natural state was while examining the shores of Loch Craggie, a famous angling loch of Mr Matheson's of Lewis, lying in the upland north-east of Ben Doula, near Lairg. A small stony point (an island when the waters are full), not unadorned by tufts of grass and rushes projected from the lower end of the loch; and seeing the parent birds swimming somewhat anxiously near it, and not, as usual, seeking to escape by diving, we made our enquiring way by wading across the water, and soon discovered. two little cowering existences covered with black down. They lay in a shallow trampled hollow which seemed to serve as, though it could scarcely be called, a nest. We took them up, treating them very tenderly, and then placed them close to the water's edge, where they waddled a little for the first time in their lives, and then striking out with both feet and winglets, were instantly joined by their parents, who met them more than half way the whole forming a family group of great beauty.