402 BRITISH BIRDS. 



That year I arrived in Sutherlandshire on May 12th. 

 The weather was beautifully fine and warm, but this was 

 only of recent occurrence, as apparently the heavy snows 

 of late April had but just melted away. On the evening 

 of my arrival I had a short conversation with the keeper, 

 in the course of which I asked him if he had seen anything 

 of the Goosander. He at once replied that a few mornings 

 previously as he was coming down the road which runs 

 parallel with a small stream that flows from the hills 

 through a deep gorge down into the loch, he had seen a 

 Goosander flying rapidly up-stream, and that at a certain 

 point it had appeared to dive mto the bank. There 

 was of course no doubt in my mind then that I was 

 at last on the right track and that the explanation of 

 my previous years' fruitless search was at hand. 



The keeper had described the spot where he had seen 

 the Goosander disappear so fully that I did not think it 

 necessary to take him with me next morning, and I ac- 

 cordingly started away at an early hour to explore the 

 gorge, the banks of which are in places very steep and 

 rocky — in others less precipitous, but thickly grown 

 with heather, with here and there a mountain ash, or 

 birch, or an aspen, now just bursting into leaf. Although 

 I was perfectly familiar with the stream, having often 

 tramped it from mouth to source in search of the 

 Ring-Ousel, curiously enough it had never struck me before 

 as an ideal place for the nest haunt of the Goosander, and 

 I naturally was full of excitement at the prospect before 

 me. On reaching the spot which I imagined the keeper 

 to have described — a high and somewhat bare hummock, 

 forming almost an island in the stream, with a solitary 

 tree and thin growth of heather on the top, the whole 

 overlooking a beautiful waterfall, I at once commenced 

 searching the holes and rifts in the peat, some of w^hich 

 are fringed with heather. In about ten minutes I came 

 across a deepish cavity with a well-worn track leading 

 in to it, and two tell-tale down-tufts clinging to the 

 heather at the entrance. I could by no means reach the 



