CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 1 97 



an island that lies to the north of the Island of Barra. 

 When not otherwise engaged I used to go out with 

 my ghillie, Mac, in a sea-boat and explore all creeks, 

 sea-rocks, and salt water lakes that abound in that 

 neiohbourhood. It was on one of these excursions 

 that I came across these Mergansers. I can't say 

 whether I got both the birds in the case on the same 

 day, or whether the drake is the one that gave me 

 such a lot of fun, or whether it was that one that has 

 been taken out of the case as it originally was, but 

 as it is an even chance that the drake you are look- 

 ing at is the identical bird, I had better relate the 

 circumstances. 



I had — so far as my memory serves me — stalked 

 him on a sort of sea loch, surprised, shot at, and 

 dropped him on the wing; but as he was nothing 

 like mortally wounded he managed by diving to 

 get a good way out into the water. As I had no 

 boat to follow him up at that particular spot, and 

 he was too far off to sustain much damage by an 

 ordinary charge of powder and shot, it was lucky 

 that I had some wire cartridges by me which threw 

 the shot right on top of him ; two or three of these 

 made him appear to be somewhat sick. Then he acted 

 as most of the Duck tribe do, i.e., he made for the 

 shore. I watched him carefully with my ghillie's 

 marine glasses (referred to before as being excellent), 

 saw him go ashore at the head of the loch into some 

 rocks some little distance from the water's edee, and 

 marked the exact spot. I had to go all round the 

 loch again to get to where he was, and when I got 



