CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 205 



in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, 

 which were obtained in Caithness ; the actual nest 

 having been cut out of the soil by Colonel Irby and 

 Captain Reid, and the whole, i.e., birds and nest, 

 presented by those officers to the Museum. 



In saying something about the circumstances 

 under which I was fortunate enough to obtain two 

 such valuable birds — for there is no question about 

 the Black Throated Diver being by far the rarest of 

 the four British species— I am not going to satisfy 

 the reader's curiosity by making known the exact 

 locality where I shot them. It will be quite enough 

 to say that they were bagged in Scotland, within the 

 range given by Howard Saunders, which is the lochs 

 of Inverness-shire, Perthshire, Ross-shire, Argyleshire, 

 as well as many lochs in the Outer Hebrides. 



At the hotel where I happened to be staying at 

 the time, I made the acquaintance of a certain head- 

 keeper, who seemed very much inclined to give me 

 his valuable assistance in the work I had in hand. 

 After a little chat, he told me that he knew of a pair 

 of these Divers on a loch not many miles off, so an 

 expedition was arranged accordingly. 



The birds' objective point appeared to be near a 

 particular island amongst the several there were in 

 the loch in question, and this island was some little 

 way out, but near the side I wanted to be landed on 

 there was not sufficient water for the boat, so the 

 old Scotch keeper promptly carried me across on his 

 back, and we two then, on landing, took up a suit- 

 able position, whilst the ghillie rowed the boat away. 



