174 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



abandoning her nest to the floods. On more than one 

 occasion a few weeks afterwards I had seen the bird rest- 

 lessly winging her way backward and forward jmst the 

 old nesting site, and, although I had every reason to believe 

 that she was brooding on a second clutch of eggs, I was 

 unable to locate the site. One evening — it was the 6th 

 of June — my host and I made a last expedition to the 

 nesting ground, though, after previous unsuccessful visits, 

 we had little hope of discovering the eggs. For some time 

 we searched, but saw no signs of the Goosander, and had 

 almost given up our quest when, as a last resource, we 

 climbed to the highest point of the rock and dropped 

 a couple of stones into the burn thirty feet below us. 

 Immediately the hen Goosander was seen flying quickly 

 up stream, moving only a few feet above the surface of 

 the water, and now there began a stern search for her 

 treasures that she had been so reluctant to quit. Over 

 perilously narrow ledges we clambered with imminent 

 danger of falling into the burn beneath, but the elusive 

 nest was nowhere to be seen. Soon we had searched the 

 whole face of the rock with the exception of one hollow, 

 guarded by blaeberry plants of a delicate green and 

 situated about twelve feet above the water's level. A 

 solitary and insignificant little feather, entangled amongst 

 the vegetation, gave us fresh hope, and we determined to 

 investigate what the elusive hollow contained. The 

 rock below the hollow was perpendicular — overhanging 

 even — and although, by using alarmingly small niches as 

 footholds, I succeeded in reaching a point two feet below 

 the hollow, farther ascent was impossible. The only 

 thing to do was to break down a portion of the rock to 

 create an artificially formed ledge, and after an hour's 

 strenuous work, during which we were half blinded with 

 the dust from the splintered rock, we succeeded in dis- 

 lodging a portion, and then the writer managed to raise 



