THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 19 



and streams there is always a certain width of bright green 

 herbage, where the sheep at this season find plenty of good 

 grazing. The long ranges of cliff-like rocks near Inchna- 

 damph are very splendid in their height and shape, and are 

 frequented by buzzards, ravens, grey crows, and a pair of 

 peregrine falcons. Notwithstanding all these enemies, the 

 ring-ousel sings from every green corner of the rocks, while 

 wheatears (safer perhaps from their smaller size and their 

 habit of dodging under the stones) are extremely numerous 

 everywhere along the road side. At Inchnadamph we arrived 

 -late in the evening, and fotind a comfortable, clean inn, an 

 obliging landlord, and all the accompaniments that one could 

 wish to refresh both mind and body (I am afraid that the 

 former is sadly dependent on the latter), at the end of 

 rather a hard and long day's work, for we had been actively 

 employed from daylight. 



The black-throated diver (Colymbus arcticus) is a peculiarly 

 beautiful and singularly marked bird. Though generally 

 rare, in certain localities which happen to be adapted to its 

 habits this bird is not unfrequently to be found during the 

 breeding season. It invariably breeds on some small, fiat 

 island in an inland lake ; it prefers, and indeed is seldom 

 found except in, lakes which lie in a flat or open part of the 

 country, and which have shallows and grassy creeks, as it 

 feeds more on frogs, leeches, and similar productions of such 

 places, than on the trout that frequent the more stony and 

 deeper parts of the lake. Apparently from the position of 

 its legs and feet, this diver cannot walk on land, and there- 

 fore places her eggs within a very few feet of the water's 

 edge on a Hat island where it can reach them by a kind of 

 waddling, seal-like motion. I never found above two eggs in 

 a nest, and do not believe that they ever lay more, although 

 I have been told of three having been procured. The egg is 

 of a long and regular oval form, and large ; the colour is a 

 fine rich brown green with darker spots. This bird appears 

 to have great difficulty in rising from the water on a calm 

 day, and sometimes nothing will induce it to fly, although 

 when once on wing it flies strong and high. When two or 

 more are in company I have never seen them rise ; they 

 appear then to trust more to diving for safety ; but when a 

 black-throated diver is alone, he will frequently take to flight 

 most unexpectedly and leave the loch altogether. Unluckily, 

 the very great beauty of its plumage, and the rarity and 



