CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 207 



have stood a very good chance of getting the second 

 Diver. As it was, as soon as my gun went off, this 

 wretched spaniel broke loose from control ; so 

 excited was he that he dashed round to the other 

 side of the island, barking and yapping all the time, 

 thus driving the remaining bird — who at first seemed 

 somewhat confused at the whole of the proceedings 

 — far out into the loch before I could get round with 

 the keeper for another shot. 



We spent the whole of that day trying to get that 

 other bird by every artifice we could think of, but 

 all to no purpose, so at last had to give it up as a 

 bad job and return to the hotel. However, I was 

 thoroughly pleased and satisfied to have obtained 

 even one of these beautiful birds. 



Some little time elapsed before the keeper brought 

 me information of another pair of Divers which had 

 been seen near a low flat island in a much larger 

 loch a ofood distance from the hotel. As in the first 

 instance so in this, the bird — for there was only one 

 when I went there — seemed to have a predilection 

 for making towards this island more than any 

 of the others. In close proximity to this par- 

 ticular island was another small flat island from 

 which, should fortune favor me, I might obtain a 

 shot. 



The keeper and ghillie having landed me on this 

 same island, rowed away. The approach of the 

 boat, had, in this instance, as in the other, the effect 

 of making the bird submerge herself in the 

 water almost to the point of the beak, and I had to 



