JANUARY 17 



not, somewhere in Fife. How this solitary individual 

 found its way, as if in answer to my wishes, to the 

 White Loch, it would be difficult to say, for it is a 

 bird very reluctant to take flight. It does, however, 

 fly strongly when once on the wing, and migrates far 

 and wide. 



Well, this lonely bird remained until the great frost 

 locked up the lake for nearly two months (notwith- 

 standing that Camden in his Britannia affirms that 

 the White Lake of Myrtoun never freezeth, no, not in 

 the hardest winters), when it disappeared. It returned 

 again in spring and remained, still solitary, throughout 

 the summer of 1895 and the succeeding winter. But 

 the best remains to tell. By hook or by crook, in the 

 spring of 1896, he (or she, for it is not easy to dis- 

 tinguish the sex of these grebes) obtained a mate, 

 nested, and produced three young. It was a pretty 

 sight through the glass in August to watch one of 

 the parent birds fishing, while the young ones played 

 around. From time to tune the old bird brought up a 

 little perch ; then there was a race between the young 

 ones to secure it. Their movements were so quick, 

 that I failed to detect whether the old one fed the 

 three young in turn, or whether it was first come first 

 served. 



[Advantage may be taken of a new edition to add 

 that these grebes have bred regularly on the White 

 Loch every season since 1897. In 1900 there were two 

 nests. I have never seen the loon, as he is called in 

 Norfolk, on the wing, yet he must be pretty hardy in 

 B 



