COLYMBUS ARCTICUS. 4.09 
by almost everyone else referred to C. arcticus, and no doubt properly. The 
rumour, however, seems to explain Mr. Wolley’s desire to identify the eggs 
he took in Sutherland by shooting the parents, which would otherwise have 
been needless. ] 
§ 4972. Two.—Loch Shin, Sutherland, 14 May, 1849. 
oe Ws 
The first nest of this species I found was by the side of Loch Shin. 
Half a mile on, after finding a Goose’s nest and a Wild Duck’s, I 
come across a Black-throated Diver’s pair of eggs. I do not see the 
Lird, but on my going away it comes in sight, and I make it out well 
with my glass. On my returning it is on or close to the nest, and 
swims out to about eighty yards, where it stops. The nest is a mere 
depression of some size in the very short grass. Round it there are 
scattered bits of willow growing about six or eight inches high, and 
in it are broken bits of willow. The grass growing in it is yellow, 
shewing that the bird has been sitting some little time—several days 
from the appearance of the contents of the eggs. The island may be 
twenty yards long, and has on it two or three scattered bunches of 
heather. I see no track to the water’s edge, which is about four 
yards off—large stones reaching halfway. The “islet” was connected 
with the mainland by a ridge of sand, along which I walked. I 
visited if as appearing likely for a Diver’s nest. Ferguson, the game- 
keeper at Lairg, thought us wonderfully lucky in finding the nest. 
The islet or peninsula on which I found the eggs was in a kind of bay 
just opposite the island or islands in Loch Shin. 
§ 4973. TZwo.—Loch Awe, Sutherland, 17 May, 1849. 
After dinner at Altnagallagagh I walk to the gamekeeper’s, John 
Sutherland. He is not in, but there I see two shepherds who tell me 
that the two Mr. Clarkes! have just got their boat into Loch Awe, and 
want the keeper to search the islands. I start for it, and they arrive 
about the same time. Having stated my case I am carried out in 
the boat, a Norwegian skiff bought at Stornaway, to an island near 
the middle of the loch; but before I get there I have broken an oar. 
Mr. Clarke takes one side of the island, I the other. I find the nest 
almost immediately—two dark, dead-looking eggs about four feet 
1 [The tenants, as Mr. Harvie-Brown informs me, of a farm near Ledbeg, where 
Sutherland lived.—Ep. | 
