BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 409 



unrivalled. Its notes are quite as discordant^ and both in the valleys of 

 the Petchora and the Yenesay I have constantly heard its wild cries, exactly 

 Hke the screams of a child in great pain, amidst the crash of the breaking 

 ice-floes and the crisp rustle of the quick-marching pack-ice, especially in 

 the misty twilight when the sun must have been a little way below the 

 northern horizon. It is almost exclusively a fish-eater, but is said also to 

 feed on frogs, moUusks, and crustaceous animals of various kinds. 



At the nest the Black-throated Diver is much more ready to take wing 

 than its larger ally. When Harvie-Brown and I were encamped on the 

 shores of the lagoon of the Petchora, we found a nest of this species con- 

 taining one egg ; both parents seemed very much disturbed at our presence, 

 and flew repeatedly over our heads, giving us ample opportunity of identi- 

 fying the species. We were far beyond the limit of forest-growth, on a 

 gently undulating moor abounding in lakes large and small; some of 

 them seemed to be almost dried up or choked up with coarse grasses, 

 rushes, and sedge. We spent an hour or two wading round the open 

 water in one of these choked-up lakes, which had become a swamp with 

 open water in the middle. The morasses are perfectly accessible with long 

 waterproof boots. Although it was the 25th of July we found a good and 

 safe bottom, hard and level as a stone floor, a solid pavement of ice. 

 Numerous Red-necked Phalaropes were swimming on the open water, and 

 amongst the coarse vegetation close to it was the nest of the Black- throated 

 Diver. A foundation had been made of roots and dead grass half turned 

 to peat, raked up from the bottom of the swamp^ and upon this was a 

 lining of fresh green sedge. The nest was a floating structure supported 

 by the surrounding aquatic vegetation, and was a couple of feet in diameter. 

 On the shingly shores of the mountain tarns of the Outer Hebrides similar 

 nests are made ; but, as is also the case with the Great Northern Diver, if 

 the banks of the lake or island be grassy, the bird merely treads a hollow 

 in the moss not much more than a foot in diameter, sometimes laying her 

 eggs on the bare ground, and sometimes placing a few pieces of fresh sedge 

 under them. This is its usual habit, according to Harvie-Brown, Gray, 

 Elwes, and others. 



My son saw several nests of this species on North Uist last summer, 

 and has furnished me with the following notes :— " On this island, which 

 does not contain a tree, the Black-throated Diver retires to the mountain 

 ' lochs ' to breed, where it makes its nest on an islet in the middle of the 

 ' loch.' I saw three nests, two containing two eggs each, and a third from 

 which the gamekeeper had shortly before taken two eggs. In each case 

 the islands were very small, only a few yards across, and thin shingly 

 banks sloped gradually out of the water, and beyond the reach of the 

 waves were covered with grass and coarse vegetation. The nests, in each 

 ease, were within half a yard of the water's edge on the bare shingle, and 



VOL. III. 2 E 



