NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS OF NORTH UIST 127 



contained the usual number of three eggs. One nest I found, 

 amongst the others, containing only two eggs of a type 

 totally different from the rest, the ground colour being an 

 ashy grey with purple blotches, blurred at the edges. I took 

 these to be the eggs of the Skuas mentioned above. 



Having left this island we had a splendid piece of luck. 

 A long grassy island lay before us with a projection or 

 promontory jutting out into the loch at one end of it, on 

 which Donald told me he had once found a nest of the Black- 

 throated Diver ; the promontory was low, not 9 inches out 

 of the water and thickly grown over with rushes and yellow 

 primroses, the edges shelving on an inclined plane into the 

 water, which was quite shallow at the edge, gradually 

 deepening. Stones stuck out of the water here and there, 

 and I thought it did look a likely place for the fine bird 

 which I looked upon as the height of my ambition in this 

 desolate country. Having landed, I walked to the end of 

 the promontory, and, to my great joy, there lay the two 

 brown eggs of the Black-throated Diver. The nest was a 

 large shallow depression in the ground 15 inches in diameter, 

 and having a wreath of dead rushes round its outer edge ; 

 the nearest point to the water was 2 feet 9 inches ; the eggs 

 were lying about 4 inches apart, there being a most unsightly 

 lump in the middle of the nest. Up to this time I had not 

 seen its owner, but, on looking about, there was the magnificent 

 bird, about 70 yards off, quietly swimming and diving. It 

 had a jet-black throat with a distinct white patch on it which 

 reminded me of my old friend at Holy Island, the Brent 

 Goose. It never spoke or cried, but quietly swam and 

 dived, seldom going more than 150 yards off. I examined it 

 thoroughly through a powerful telescope, and then proceeded 

 to search the other islands, but found nothing but Herring 

 and Lesser Black-backed Gulls breeding. The Black-headed 

 Gulls I occasionally saw. Owing to the persecution of the 

 " Big Black Gulls," they had left their usual breeding stations 

 and had nested on a hillock in the middle of a vast bog, but 

 the nest was empty. 



We had now explored into the heart of North Uist, a 

 region of bare flat moorland, bog and loch, and it was time 



