NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 149 



ground on his shooting. I have never personally seen the birds in 

 Sutherland during the breeding season, nor do I know of any one 

 who has, except in the above-mentioned instance. 



118. Razorbill. Alca tonla, Lin. 



119. Common Guillemot. Alca troile (Lin.). — Seen off the 

 coast in winter and spring. Numbers of dead birds come ashore 

 after a storm, especially in early spring, nine out of ten being Razor- 

 bills and the others Guillemots, Puffins, and Little Auks. Near the 

 mouth of the river Brora I got a specimen of the Guillemot which 

 was swimming about in a half-stupified state. 



120. Black Guillemot. Uria grylle (Lin.). — Commonly seen off 

 the coast in spring in both the full breeding and speckled plumage. 



121. Little Auk. Mergulus alle (Lin.). — Some years abundant, 

 judging from the number of dead birds iound on the shore. The 

 only live one I ever saw was swimming about within two or three 

 hundred yards of the shore, as if it could not get further out. When 

 these kind of seabirds come so close in they seem either stupified or 

 weak, and, I fancy, generally perish. 



122. Puffin. Fratercula arctica (Lin.). — Chiefly young birds 

 picked up dead in the winter or spring. 



123. Great Northern Diver. Colymbus glacialis, Lin. — A 

 regular spring visitant to the coast. I have a fine specimen in full 

 breeding plumage, which I shot in May, on a pool in the Brora 

 river, about eight miles from the mouth ; it had never left the pool 

 all day, though two gentlemen who were fishing there had been 

 pelting it with stones a good part of the day, under the belief 

 that it was a Cormorant. 



124. Black-throated Diver. Colymbus arcticus, Lin. — A very 

 common species, a pair breeding in most of the larger lochs on 

 the hill, if suitable. Their usual time of laying is about May 15th, 

 but, on one occasion, I saw a pair of these birds, and a young one 

 pretty well grown, either in the end of May or very early in June. 

 The Black-throated Divers seem to go Straight to their breeding 

 haunts, not loitering on any of the lower lochs by the way, and 

 return, as soon as the young can fly, equally quickly. They nearly 

 always have their nests at the point of some island in a loch, but 

 I have, on one occasion, taken the nest on the shore of the main- 

 land, the old bird being very tame, and swimming about within 

 twenty or thirty yards of us. 



125. Red-throated Diver. Colymbus septentrionalis, Lath. — A 



