The Lockan of the Red-throated Diver 



of the hill, stags stand their growing antlers outlined 

 against the blue of the sky finding some relief from the 

 heat in the gentle sea breeze which is drawn in from west- 

 ward. Opposite are dark cliffs where buzzard and raven 

 have their home, and near by a pair of golden eagles rear 

 their brood in an inaccessible precipice, rising sheer from 

 the sea. 



We reach the tableland, and see before us the lochan 

 of the divers. From here a fine view lies stretched out to 

 the westward. Below us the blue waters of a sea loch 

 reflect, in their rippling, the sun's rays, and the Atlantic 

 swell can be seen making its course shorewards with 

 measured rhythm. Far out on the waters the Island of 

 Colonsay lies half hidden in the haze, and beyond that the 

 hills of Islay are dim and indistinct. On the plateau Nature 

 is very still in the warmth of this summer day. We make 

 our way to the lochan 's edge. No sign of life reveals 

 itself to us. The breeze ruffles the water's surface, and 

 the water has that reddish hue denoting the presence of 

 much peat. 



The lochan holds, so it is said, trout of great size, which 

 may at times be seen in the dusk of a summer's evening 

 as they swim leisurely near the surface; but they rarely 

 rise to the fly, and during to-day not one of their number 

 shows himself. No sign of the red-throated diver is to 

 be seen on the loch, but a search round its banks reveals 

 her nest containing a solitary egg quite warm to the 

 touch. 



Weeks of dry weather have caused the loch to shrink, 

 so that the diver must have difficulty in hoisting herself 

 up on to her nest. There is the usual beaten track run- 

 ning from the nest to the water's edge, for the diver when 

 leaving her egg invariably follows the same path. The 

 nests of the diver tribe are placed always within a foot or, at 

 the outside, eighteen inches, of the water's edge, for the 

 birds when disturbed never take wing from the nest, but 



