. On Mountain and Loch. 97 



in continued wet weather than the Hebrides a wild 

 savage land of rock and loch and ling surrounded 

 by stormy seas, and only too often shrouded in gray 

 mist. During such weather the cries of the Divers 

 from the upland lochs sound more uncanny and 

 melancholy than ever oft-repeated wails or screams, 

 compared with which we should describe the noc- 

 turnal lament of a tom-cat musical; and even more 

 impressive and unearthly do they become when 

 uttered during the few hours of darkness that char- 

 acterize the night in summer in these northern 

 lands. These cries have irritated us too often for 

 us to say that we love them; still, they are not 

 without a certain charm, imbuing as they often do 

 with life scenes where solitude otherwise reigns 

 supreme. Both these Divers rarely visit the land 

 except to breed; they are clumsy birds out of the 

 water, but in that element are as much at home 

 as the fish themselves. They fly well and rapidly, 

 and are perhaps more frequently seen in the air than 

 standing on the ground. Both species may be found 

 nesting on the lochs of the Outer Hebrides. The 

 nests are never made far from the water; in fact, we 

 have seen the eggs so close to the margin of the loch 

 that the least rise in the water a frequent occur- 

 rence in such wet districts must have washed them 

 away. In these cases there can be little doubt that 

 the birds removed them to a safer distance when 



(M618) G 



