416 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



" Next morning, having occasion to angle in the loch, we paid it 

 another visit, accompanied by two ornithological friends, who 

 alas ! in addition to their rods, were each armed with an unfailing 

 fowling piece; but being ourselves in a minority, there was no 

 help for it. We approached the ' beaked promontory,' and soon 

 saw the fair creatures, full of parental fondness, also bearing 

 gallantly towards it, uttering a warning cry. They were met by 

 their sooty little offspring, who seemed to have improved upon 

 the lesson in swimming which we had given them the preceding 

 day, and then wheeling round with many serpent-like motions 

 of the head and neck, were making rapid way into the deeper 

 portion of the loch, when a couple of almost simultaneous shots 

 laid both parents, and a single young one, dead upon the waves. 

 The wind soon drifted them within our reach. The other young 

 one could be nowhere seen. When the lifeless bodies, ' beautiful 

 exceedingly/ were laid upon the bank, we (the angling minority) 

 could not help thinking mournfully of the many lustrous days and 

 peaceful nights during which they had fearlessly breasted those 

 wild waters, or reposed along their barren shores in undisturbed 

 tranquillity. How many calm sunsets had gilded that sedgy home 

 how many bright moonlights had thrown a cloudless radiance 

 over the mirror of that lonely lake and how often the summits 

 of Ben Doula had reddened as if rejoicing in the morning rays, 

 since the 'unoffending creatures' had first looked upon these 

 waters as their own ! But as Mr St. John averred of the osprey, 

 ' their skins were wanted ;' and such ornithologists as Sir William 

 Jardine and Mr Selby were made of sterner stuff than to bewail 

 their own success."* 



Mr Harvie Brown, who has paid regular visits to Sutherlandshire 

 for some years, informs me that a number of pairs still breed on 

 the lochs of that county, and that one pair at least is now known 

 to breed on the loch near Pitlochry, in Perthshire. The same 

 gentleman found two pairs in 1870 on Loch Howna, at the base of 

 Unavall, in North Uist, one of which had a young one hatched as 

 early as the 14th of May. The following notes, written by Mr 

 Elwes, relate chiefly to his experience in the Outer Hebrides, and 

 are corroborative of what has been observed by Mr Harvie Brown 

 and myself in the same district and elsewhere: "The Black- 

 throated Diver sometimes lays its eggs as early as May 9th, though 

 * N.B. Review, Vol. XI., No. XXI. 



