858 The Zoologist — August, 1867. 



Tongue — further north than the former. The blackthroated divers do 

 not often cry except when they lose their young, but the redthroated 

 diver may often be heard calling, with its wild almost unearthly shriek 

 between the " miawling" of a cat and the cry of a child in pain. Both 

 species call more in the evening or night time than through the day. 

 The blacklhroated diver almost invariably chooses to place its nest on 

 an island, though there are instances of its laying on the margin of a 

 loch. The redthroated diver lays its eggs as often on the shore as on the 

 islands. The blacklhroated diver makes scarcely any nest, but deposits 

 its two eggs — one of which is invariably lighter-coloured and longer- 

 shaped than the other — within a foot or two of the water, and the red- 

 throated diver is generally considered to lay them much nearer the 

 edge, and always above deep water. The same informant tells me the 

 following : a groove in the channel is, where such channel is present, 

 always to be seen between the nest of the blackthroated diver and the 

 water. Once my informant set a trap in this pathway with a view to 

 capture one of the old birds : when he revisited the trap he found only 

 some of the breast-feathers, and the trap sprung. The young bird, 

 which we had, when placed on a table or other level surface, threw the 

 legs far back and seemed to push itself forward, without any aid from 

 them whatever. 



Monday, June 10. — Tried again to procure the blacklhroated diver, 

 and saw distinctly that it was wounded, but could not get any reason- 

 able shots at it. Knocked some feathers out of a greenshank and 

 picked up two legs of a young one, which had probably been killed by 

 some bird or other animal of prey. A peregrine's eyrie is not far 

 distant from the loch which the greenshanks frequent. At the above- 

 mentioned eyrie I found the legs of a young curlew one day before. 

 It is generally supposed that the peregrine always takes its prey on 

 the wing, but this looks as if such was not always the case. Heard of 

 another redthroated diver's egg being taken on another loch, but we 

 did not succeed in obtaining it. Obtained five ptarmigan's eggs; 

 they are lighter in the ground colour than grouse's eggs, and shorter 

 or rounder in shape. We are assured that it is seldom that ptarmigan 

 lay e gg s as dark coloured as a type grouse's eggs, but that grouse not 

 unfrequently lay eggs as light-coloured as the type ptarmigan's 

 eggs. 



Tuesday, June 11.— To-day Mr. Jesse and I obtained permission 

 from Mr. Maclvor to fish the Hiver Inver. I succeeded in getting one 

 fish weighing eleven pounds and a half, clean run, and Mr. Jesse got 



