ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 49 



Nothing is so deceiving as water. I had set myself 

 to make a complete circuit of this loch, and I had 

 enough to do, by dint of hard walking, to effect my 

 object and return to Stromness before dark. I had a 

 great deal of hard and rough ground to pass over before 

 I could regain any sort of road; and a long shallow 

 bay running some distance up a marshy valley, 

 involved a much larger circuit than I had included in 

 my geographical calculation. 



Far, very far, out of gunshot from the shore, upon a 

 small insulated rock, I could discern a minute black 

 object. Straining intently through my glass, I was 

 delighted to observe a hen merganser (Mergus serrator) 

 resting perfectly motionless, except when she now and 

 then lowered her pointed head to plume and smooth 

 her breast-feathers. Still more delighted was I to see, 

 diving and sporting in the adjacent water, no less than 

 twenty-one young ones. 



Wonderful is the instinct and beautiful the provision 

 which teaches these wild and wary birds to choose and 

 take advantage of, for the purposes of incubation, spots 

 the most inaccessible and difficult of approach. It 

 would have tried the cunningest devices of the most 

 experienced stalker to carry her well fortified position ; 

 and, conscious of her full security, she proudly rested 

 upon this single stone ; and had I been armed with 

 the most scientific weapon of offence, I could not have 

 found it in my heart to have carried devastation into 



