y 



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1 6:2 ' Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



some low, sea-surrounded rock basking in the sun 

 and digesting their meal. Each pair of birds seem 

 attached to a certain locality, and may be found in it 

 from day to day right through the breeding season. 

 We have taken many nests of this Merganser, and 

 invariably found them made on islands in the lochs. 

 In not a few instances the first eggs are laid on the 

 bare earth, usually under the shelter of a rock, or in a 

 hollow amongst the gorse or ling close to the water's 

 edge. These eggs eventually become surrounded 

 with down plucked from the female's body, but be- 

 fore this is arranged, when there are but one or two 

 laid, they are left bare and uncovered. The much 

 rarer Goosander may occasionally be met with on 

 these Highland sea-lochs, especially in the Outer 

 Hebrides. Other birds of the Duck tribe that fre- 

 quent these lochs and the islands in them are the 

 Sheldrake and the Eider. 



Needless to remark, these lochs are favourite haunts 

 of Gulls and Terns. Of the former the most inter- 

 esting, perhaps, is the Common Gull, a species that 

 has no English breeding-place, yet in some of these 

 northern fiords it nests in abundance. In this case 

 again islands are invariably selected if any are to be 

 had. This Gull we found nesting in large numbers 

 in Loch Follart in Skye, but owing to the relentless 

 way in which its eggs were taken we should presume 

 that it has now become much scarcer. Then on the 



