GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 411 



natural range of the eagle and ptarmigan. The late Mr Yarrell 

 imagined that this grebe in particular was possessed of but limited 

 powers of flight, and would have no doubt been surprised to learn 

 that it haunted the lochans of some of our highest mountains. 

 Few persons have an opportunity of making constant observa- 

 tions at so great an altitude, and we shall probably never know 

 how the grebes make the ascent, if indeed they ever come down 

 for a change. 



THE GEEAT NORTHERN DIVER. 



COL YMB US GLA CIA LIS. 

 Bun-bhuachaill. Mur-bhuachaille. 



THIS splendid diver is a very common species in the west of 

 Scotland, being widely distributed from the Mull of Galloway to 

 Cape Wrath in the north of Sutherlandshire. In the Outer 

 Hebrides it is also very abundant, and, as a rule, is found there at 

 all seasons of the year, except the month of July. Early in 

 summer they begin to collect round the shores of Lewis, Harris, 

 North Uist, Benbecula, and indeed the whole of the Long island, 

 where they linger until the beginning of June, some remaining 

 even as late as the middle of the month.* A few remain in 

 Benbecula all the summer; the nest, however, has never been 

 found. They return some time in August, and are seen in groups 

 of fifteen to twenty birds, swimming near the shore immediately 

 on their arrival. I observed a gathering of this kind on the west 

 side of Benbecula on the 29th of August, 1867, and was told by a 

 friend residing there that he had seen them fully a fortnight 

 before. All the birds were in brilliant summer plumage, and, as 

 a group, formed a spectacle which is not often looked upon by 

 even the most fortunate ornithologist. In many of the Sounds 

 and salt-water reaches of the inner islands, similar companies have 

 been observed at the beginning of the season. Dr Scouler has 

 informed me, that in the course of a yachting cruise among these 

 islands, he has seen from fifty to sixty Great Northern Divers, all 

 in groups of six or eight birds, preparing to quit the coasts for 



* I have in my collection a beautiful male in full breeding plumage, which 

 was shot near Nunton, on the west side of Benbecula, on 24th June, 1866. 



