ON THE HIGHLAND LOCHS. 29 



considerable distance; reconnoitring all the time, and 

 making a noise something like a single note of the 

 hurdy-gurdy. You may perhaps expect his return, and 

 wait for him; but although he may remain about the 

 same place, making these calls, and apparently careless, 

 he is all the time very suspicious; and I only once or 

 twice, in my whole experience, knew him return to the 

 spot where he was first discovered. Should he get sight 

 of you, there is no hope, even if he does not take wing, 

 which he most likely will. The little morillon may 

 return, if you think him worth waiting for ; but he is 

 so hard and coarse on the table, that it would be paying 

 him too great a compliment. The golden-eye, on the 

 contrary, is a great delicacy a sufficient proof, I think, 

 were there no other, that morillons are not young golden- 

 eyes, as many suppose. When several are diving toge- 

 ther, you must get as near as possible without alarming 

 them; and, selecting a couple who dive at the same 

 moment, hoot away the others, who will be far out of 

 reach before their companions come up. They will pro- 

 bably never miss them until they have taken two or 

 three dives, thus giving you an opportunity of getting 

 the shot ; of which you would have had a much worse 

 chance while they were together. 



Of all wild-fowl, a flock of dun-birds is the most 

 agreeable to the sportsman's eye. They are the most 

 stupid of all the diver race : I have even seen them, 

 after having been driven from their feeding-ground, 



