CHAP. XXVH.] VARIETIES OF GULLS. 215 



fortnight or more in this manner, they betake themselves to their 

 breeding-place, which is generally either some rushy and quiet 

 pool or island on some mountain lake, where they can breed and 

 rear their young unmolested. There are several lochs in this 

 neighbourhood where they breed. One they chiefly resort to is 

 a small piece of water in the forest of Darnaway, where they are 

 not allowed to be annoyed or disturbed during the time of incu- 

 bation. In these places their nests are placed as close as possible 

 to each other, and from the constant noise and flying backwards 

 and forwards of the birds, one would suppose that the greatest 

 confusion must prevail amongst their crowded commonwealth, 

 but every bird knows and attends to her own nest, and though 

 their cries sound angry and harsh, the greatest amity and the 

 strictest peace are preserved. Though crossing and jostling each 

 other in all directions, they never appear to quarrel or fight. On 

 the contrary, the birds all unite and make common cause against 

 any enemy, man or beast, that approaches them, or whose pre- 

 sence seems to threaten danger. I once took a boat to a moun- 

 tain lake in Inverness-shire, where thousands of these birds bred 

 on some small islands which dot the surface of the water. The 

 gulls, though not exactly attacking me, dashed unceasingly so 

 close to rny head that I felt the wind of their wings, and I some- 

 times really feared some one more venturous thau the rest might 

 drive his bill into my eyes. They had probably never had a 

 visitor to their islands before. The shepherds, having a kind of 

 superstitious dread of the place, from its being supposed to be 

 haunled ground, never attempt to cross to the islands by swim- 

 ming or wading. The greater part of the largest island was ab- 

 solutely covered with eggs, laid in small hollows scraped by the 

 birds, with little pretensions to any other kind of nest. I could 

 scarcely walk without treading on them. Close to the edge of 

 the water, indeed, so near that the nest was always wet, was the 

 doni'cile of a pair of black -throated divers, or loon, with a couple 

 of long greenish-coloured eggs. The old birds swam out to a 

 short distance, and watched me with great interest, uttering their 

 strange hollow call. There were several smaller islands, or 

 points of rock, appearing above the water, on each of which a 

 pair of black-backed gulls had made their nest, constructed with 

 more care and skill than those of their black headed cousins. 



