REDTHROATED-DIVER 455 



or three nests with eggs, besides the numerous empty ones. Each 

 nest had the characteristic landing-place, and in this colony there 

 was no attempt to make any nest beyond a mere hollow in the 

 turf, with an occasional wisp of dead grass. Needless to say, all 

 these birds would lay again, and the taking of the first clutches 

 would have little or no effect on the number of breeding birds as 

 long as they are allowed to hatch off the second laying, or even the 

 third, undisturbed. 



Like the other Divers, it seems to have at least two distinct 

 classes of note. There is the loud, plaintive wail, which probably 

 corresponds to the song of other birds, written by Edmund Selous as 

 " < I a '-< ><>-<>( t." and there is also the quacking note, which Aplin says is 

 a mixture between the cackle of a guinea-fowl and the bray of an ass 

 and Naumann writes as " ack ack" or tick tick." There is also the harsh 

 guttural alarm-note, used to warn the incubating bird of the approach 

 of danger. 



With regard to the attitude of this species on land, although the 

 prone position is normal as in the other species, it does occasionally 

 assume an erect stance. Thus Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh once watched 

 one walk deliberately out of the water with the intention of crossing 

 a sand-spit. It walked perfectly upright on its feet, in the same 

 position as a cormorant, but after going a few yards it caught sight of 

 him, and immediately dropped down on to its breast and shuffled 

 back into the water. 1 Mr. G. Bolam also once noticed one of these 

 birds rise from some seaweed and scuttle away to the water in 

 a tolerably upright attitude, at a very fair pace and with a very 

 grebe-like gait. 2 Mr. R. Godfrey has also seen this species " walk 

 well with distinct laboured steps and slouching belly." 3 Although both 

 parents tend and feed the young, Mr. H. J. Pearson noticed that it 

 was the male bird which stayed to look after them when threatened 



1 Zoologist, 1892, p. 226. 



- Birds of Northumberland and the Eastern Borders, p. 679 ; cf. also Bahr, Home Life of 



i' Marsh Birtln, p. 32. 



3 A Fauna of the Shetland Isles, p. 207. 



