122 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



belong. We then steamed north, and after a stormy passage 

 reached Lochmaddy about midday on 12th May. Loch- 

 maddy is merely an inlet or bay of the sea, studded with 

 rocky islands, on which few birds breed. I should think 

 the Oystercatcher and Ring-dotterel might breed on them, 

 as I saw them flitting about. On reaching my inn I came 

 across a man whom I found to be the veteran poacher on 

 the island, and he recommended me to write to Donald 

 Ross, Sir John Campbell Orde's gamekeeper, who has charge 

 of all the game and fowl on the island. This is no small 

 charge either, as the area of the island is 80,000 acres, 

 30,000 of which consist of water in the form of fresh-water 

 lochs, and it is on these that the birds are principally found 

 breeding. Having written to him explaining my objects, 

 and asking him to meet me with a boat on Monday morning, 

 my poacher and I set out for a walk to the nearest loch. 

 About three miles away we came to a large loch, studded 

 with islands, on which I saw first, of all a splendid pair 

 of Black-throated Divers swimming ; Great Black-backed 

 Gulls were soaring about, and Merganser, Grey Lag Geese, 

 Sheldrake, Mallard, Herring and Common Gulls were soon 

 all on the wing at our approach. The number of birds 

 induced me to strip and try to swim off to the nearest 

 islands, but the coldness of the water was too much for 

 me and I was obliged to give up the idea of doing anything 

 without a boat. Some of the islands were covered with long 

 rank heather, others with a light green grass ; on the former 

 the Geese were nesting, on the latter the Gulls. We left this 

 loch and crossed some wide tracts of bog, studded with small 

 ponds, with oozy edges, soft and stagnant. From one of 

 these I noticed a Red-throated Diver fly, and on examin- 

 ing the edges I soon found the nest, a mere depression 

 formed in the moss by the bird's breast within a foot of 

 the water's edge. Between the water and the nest was 

 a distinct impression formed by the bird in clambering 

 up the 8 or 9 inches of bank to the nest ; unfortunately this 

 was empty. 



In addition to this we saw one Whimbrel, quite tame 

 and quite alone, but showing no signs of breeding ; a 



