BLACK -THROATED DIVER. 415 



being noticed, however, their bodies were lowered, and their heads 

 turned to the other side of the lake; then their swimming powers 

 were seen to great advantage as they hastened out of danger. In 

 dry seasons, especially, their extraordinary cry frequently startles 

 the lonely traveller as he passes their haunts, making the still 

 waters resound with strange echoes from their rocky embankments. 

 The natives of Benbecula and North Uist compare it to " Deocli! 

 deoch! deoch! tha'n loch a traoghadh" which may be interpreted by 

 the words, "Drink! drink! drink! the lake is nearly dried up." 



Apart from these Hebridean summer haunts of the Black- 

 throated Diver, the most interesting breeding places are unques- 

 tionably the lochs of Sutherland shire, where Sir William Jardine 

 and the late Mr Selby discovered the nest in 1834. Mr Selby's 

 notes having been communicated to Mr Yarrell, and published in 

 that author's ' History of British Birds,' it is unnecessary to repeat 

 them here; but as allusion is made to Mr James Wilson's discovery 

 of a nest and two young ones on Loch Craggie, near Lairg, the 

 following particulars by that pleasing writer, which I have not 

 seen quoted in any ornithological work, may not be unacceptable 

 to general readers: "The Black- throated Diver (Colymbusarcticus) 

 is a bird of large size and singular beauty. It almost invariably 

 builds on the small low islands of inland lakes, preferring those 

 with flat or somewhat open shores to such as are precipitous or 

 rock-bound. The first time we ever encountered the species in its 

 natural state was while examining the shores of Loch Craggie, a 

 famous angling loch of Mr Matheson's of Lewis, lying in the up- 

 land north-east of Ben Doula, near Lairg. A small stony point 

 (an island when the waters are full), not unadorned by tufts of 

 grass and rushes projected from the lower end of the loch ; and 

 seeing the parent birds swimming somewhat anxiously near it, 

 and not, as usual, seeking to escape by diving, we made our 

 enquiring way by wading across the water, and soon discovered 

 two little cowering existences covered with black down. They 

 lay in a shallow trampled hollow which seemed to serve as, though 

 it could scarcely be called, a nest. We took them up, treating 

 them very tenderly, and then placed them close to the water's edge, 

 where they waddled a little for the first time in their lives, and then 

 striking out with both feet and winglets, were instantly joined by 

 their parents, who met them more than half way the whole 

 forming a family group of great beauty. 



