336 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



on showing a specimen, which I had shot, to some of our islanders, 

 they could not decide what it was, although a serious old Celt 

 hazarded the conjecture that it might be the devil in feathers; for, 

 having the feet and legs of a common hen, was it not running in 

 the face of all nature's laws to dive and swim 1 The pairs referred 

 to had evidently been migratory visitors from the mainland, as 

 even in this out of the way mountain tarn, which was so small as 

 to be walked round in a few minutes, and had no more cover than a 

 handful of thinly growing reeds, it was nearly impossible to get a 

 shot at them. They invariably disappeared whenever anybody ap- 

 proached, and continued invisible so long as the cause of alarm 

 remained." I had often observed Moor-hens practising the same 

 ingenuity at concealment in other places, and on several occasions 

 had seen them holding with their long toes the stems of plants 

 under water, in order to keep their bodies submerged. I remember 

 surprising a young family of full fledged Moor-hens in Inch Moin, 

 on Loch Lomond. In their wild alarm they all took to the' 

 water and dived beneath the surface. Having sprung into the 

 boat to watch their movements, I was astonished to see two or 

 three of them at the bottom trying to push their heads under 

 a half submerged boulder lying on a bed of shingle, just as crabs 

 would have done on being disturbed. They were very soon, 

 however, obliged to abandon their apparently suicidal intention 

 and come to the surface, after which they paddled quickly away 

 from the shore. An hour afterwards I found one of them 

 floating helplessly on the lake about half a mile distant; it was 

 quite stiff, and incapable of motion. 



Mr Harvie Brown informs me that the Moor-hen is found 

 breeding in the north of Caithness, and that he has eggs in his 

 collection which were taken in the summer of 1869 near Thurso. 



I have a number of eggs of this species now before me, from 

 the banks of Loch Leven, where they were obtained by Mr 

 Sinclair. These present considerable variation, both in shape 

 and colouring, from the common type; they are much more 

 obtuse at the ends, and are of a darker shade; the ground colour 

 is in fact only a shade lighter than the spots. 



