124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



island, on which also is a colony of the Common Gull {Lanis 

 canus). This situation, however, is exceptional, as usually they 

 are solitary birds. The males of different pairs, when the females 

 are sitting, often join company, and may be seen fishing together 

 on another loch. 



This beautiful bird, so graceful in its every action whilst in the 

 water, progresses but clumsily on land. The female, when 

 going to or from her nest, rests her breast upon the ground, and 

 uses her feet behind as propellers, much in the same way as she 

 would do if swimming. Thus a beaten path, and often a deepish 

 groove in the turf or gravel, is always found between the nest 

 and the water. An old gamekeeper informed me that he has in 

 vain attempted to trap an old Diver, invariably finding his trap 

 sprung, with a few of the breast feathers in its grasp. 



If a pair of Divers be pursued by a boat, comparatively rarely 

 will either bird take wing, but almost always they will endeavour 

 to escape by swimming and diving. I have, however, seen them, 

 when hard pressed, rise and quit the loch, but only to return 

 again in a short time. If danger is at hand when the female is 

 sitting, the male will try to lead her off the nest by uttering his 

 guttural cry. If the danger becomes imminent (as, for instance, 

 if a man enter the water preparatory to swimming out to the 

 island), the male will swim rapidly close up to his mate, and then 

 both will dive and reappear at a distance. 



The Black-throated Diver is very tenacious of its old breeding 

 haunts, and, unless systematically persecuted from year to year, 

 repeatedly fired at, or otherwise annoyed, will not easily change to 

 a new locality; but, once a loch is deserted by these birds, it may 

 be many years before they will again be seen upon it. 



EED-THROATED DIVER. 



COLYMBUS SEPTENTRIONALIS, Linnaeus. 



Mention is made of this species as inhabiting Sutherland so long 

 ago as 1793, in the "Old Statistical Account" of the parish of Realf, 

 where, under the name of " Eain-Goose," it is included in a 

 somewhat long and tolerably full list of the birds found in that 

 district. 



The Red-throated Diver is about as abundant as the last- 

 mentioned species, but, as already noticed, its distribution is 



