VOL. VII.] THE RED-THROATED DIVER. 151 



1.30 and 2 p.m. five of these birds came to feed round 

 the tarn ; they Avere in a great hurry, and evidently 

 bent on making the most of their time. There 

 was another pool higher up, and at 3 p.m. a Red- 

 throated Diver, which I took to be my bird, ahghted 

 there and began to play about ; the light was fine and 

 the bird looked beautiful, turning and twisting, diving, 

 shaking its wings and preening itself. I waited — 

 all excitement — hoping every moment that it would 

 return to its maternal duties ; but when, after some two 

 hours of this irresponsible behaviour, the bird quietly 

 settled down to sleep with its head and neck twisted 

 over its back, and just floated idly with the wind, it 

 suddenly dawned upon me that such callous behaviour 

 could only be the result of masculine indifference. 



Meanwhile, I had taken advantage of the Diver's 

 comparative remoteness, to re-focus and change my 

 plate, thereby making a considerable rustling inside 

 the tent. Becoming suddenly aware of my mistake 

 and its probable results, I gently thrust a hatpin through 

 the back of the tent, and by placing one eye close to 

 this tiny hole, surveyed that portion of the tarn which 

 was behind me. Great was my annoyance at finding 

 the female lurking within two feet of my tent, where 

 no doubt she had been all the time her mate was enjoying 

 himself in the upper pool. My chances were spoilt 

 for that day, as it was then 6 p.m., so I merely 

 photographed the eggs, moving my camera near the 

 nest in order to do this. When unscrewing my big 

 Zeiss lens, it gave a kick at the last turn, spun out of 

 my hand and rolled into the tarn. My depression was 

 then complete and only the stentorian commands of 

 the gillie prevented me from following the lens : the 

 tarn was deep and dark as the inferno is said to be. 

 The next day, however, a solemn procession consisting 

 of the two keepers, Mss Haviland and myseK, armed 

 with poles and landing-nets, set out to recover the 

 lens ; and after a while it was deftly hauled up by the 



