BY LAKES AND STREAMS. 125 



Highland lochs. Of these the RED-THROATED w est and 

 DIVER (Colymbus septentrionalis) is by far the Scotland 

 commonest and most widely distributed, the 

 BLACK-THROATED DIVER (C. aretes) being more west and 

 local. The habits of both birds are very similar. Scotland. 

 Their true haunt is the water, where they swim 

 and dive with marvellous skill, feeding principally 

 on fish. They fly well, but upon the land are 

 clumsy and awkward, shuffling along with their 

 breasts upon the ground owing to the fact that 

 their legs are placed so far backwards. Both 

 birds utter a wild and piercing scream, which 

 sounds like the shrieks of persons being tortured, 

 most persistently in spring and before rain. Both 

 birds breed in May and June, making slight nests 

 of grass and aquatic herbage, a few feet from the 

 water's edge, or on an island in the loch amongst 

 the coarse grass. Of the two the nest of the 

 Black-throated Diver is perhaps the most elabo- 

 rate ; the Red-throated Diver sometimes being 

 content with a mere hollow on the shore. Each 

 species lays two eggs, olive -brown in ground 

 colour, spotted with dark brown. The Black- 

 throated Diver's are the darkest and least profusely 

 spotted. When the young are reared the birds 

 begin to wander, and during winter especially, 

 visit our southern waters, becoming much more 

 oceanic in their habits. These two birds are 

 readily distinguished in breeding plumage by the 

 respective colours of the throat, being purplish 

 black in the one, and reddish chestnut in the 

 other, as the English names imply. 



We will now betake ourselves to southern 

 waters, more accessible to the observer, where 

 we shall not fail to find birds, if not so rare, 



