RED -THROATED DTVER. 417 



I have found them fresh six weeks later; and if the first pair are 

 taken, it always lays again in the vicinity of the first nest. I have 

 even heard of a fifth egg having been laid after the second pair were 

 taken. They are not found on the small lochs to which the red- 

 throated diver retires to lay, but on large pieces of water containing 

 several islands. In one of these islands where the shore is soft 

 and shelving, the bird creeps up about a yard from the water and 

 lays two eggs on a bare round spot as large as a dinner plate, 

 sometimes placing a few bits of grass or rush round them, and 

 always making a visible track to the water by the pressure of her 

 breast. When disturbed by the approach of any one, she dives 

 quietly off the eggs and comes up at a little distance, but is very 

 unwilling to leave the place altogether. They are found in 

 scattered pairs nearly all over the West Highlands, though I do 

 not think they breed in Skye, Mull, or Islay. In winter they are 

 not often seen, and are difficult to distinguish from the great 

 northern diver." 



Dr Dewar, who has also had considerable experience in 

 observing the habits of this bird, found several nests in the island 

 of North Uist in the breeding season of 1858, and has also 

 obtained both birds and eggs from one or two stations in 

 Argyllshire. 



THE RED-THROATED DIVER. 



CO L YMB US SEPTENTR ION A LIS. 



THE Red-throated Diver is a very common bird in the West of 

 Scotland, and is found at all seasons of the year. It breeds in 

 some numbers on many of the islands in fresh -water lakes, and is 

 permanently resident throughout the Hebrides, where I have had 

 frequent opportunities of studying its habits. The nest, if nest it 

 can be called, is like that of its congener the black-throated diver 

 placed very near the water, so as to allow the sitting bird to 

 make its escape readily in case of danger. I have never seen more 

 than two eggs in a nest, which is one short of the number usually 

 laid by the same species in North America. According to 

 Audubon, three eggs are as often found in a nest as two. It 

 sometimes happens with us, however, that the rearing of a pair in 

 safety is even more than the old birds are able to accomplish. On 



2B 



