40 TOUR IN SUTHERLAND. CH. III. 



The instinct and reasoning of the dog struck me 

 as very great in his manner of trying if we belonged 

 to the party who had been up to the high ground 

 before daybreak in pursuit of a lamb-killing fox ; 

 for we afterwards heard that the fox-hunter of the 

 district had been following his avocation on the 

 heights of Ben Cleebrick that morning, and that 

 some of his dogs had strayed away from him in 

 pursuit, probably, of a deer, though he owned only 

 to their having followed a fox. 



As we were rowing back to the point where we 

 launched the boat, we suddenly came upon no less 

 than six of those beautiful birds, the black-throated 

 diver. We pursued them immediately, and drove 

 them up into a small bay of the lake : there after 

 much trouble we managed to shoot one, the rest 

 escaping by diving under the boat or round it, and 

 getting off into the wide part of the loch. None 

 of them attempted to take flight, although so hard 

 pressed and hemmed up into a corner of the lake. 

 When one was separated from the rest, he generally 

 began to croak in the voice peculiar to these birds. 

 In consequence of their swimming so low in the 

 water and their gi^eat strength, it is very difficult 

 to shoot them, particularly as when they are once 

 alarmed they dive so suddenly that they are fre- 

 quently too quick even for a percussion gun. 



