1308 The Zoologist— August, 1868. 



May 19. Saw two pair of blackthroated divers to-day on one loch, 

 which is rather uncommon. Gillie swam out to one green island, but 

 did not find the eggs. Oh ! what would I not have given for a 

 light corracle or India-rubber boat or canoe. There were at least 

 a dozen or eighteen islands on this loch, and herons, divers, ducks 

 and geese breeding on them, and other birds, very likely, that I 

 wot not of. 



May 20. Keeper and I missed a buzzard to-day with all four 

 barrels. We set a trap, however, baited with half a young kid which 

 we had found dead on the hills, and a few days after got one of the 

 pair, but the trap had spoiled the legs, and, in its struggles, the bird, 

 as far as stuffing was concerned. I kepi the wings "in memoriam." 



May 21. Took four eggs of the ringed ouzel : ils nest was built in 

 the bottom of an old hooded crow's nest, which also hist year was 

 occupied by a pair of kestrels: the female flew off the nest. 



May 23. Obtained a nest of four very fine greenshank's eggs : the 

 person who took them yesterday, and brought them to me unblown, 

 knew of the nest before the eggs were laid. This season I got another 

 complete nest of greenshank's eggs collected along with the golden 

 plover's, before referred to, redbreasted mergansers and other things, 

 for me in another part of the county. The person who took the last 

 nest got them by remaining out all night, and watching the bird go on 

 to the nest in the morning. 



May 26. To-day, during an excursion to the Badcall Islands, dis- 

 tinctly saw a purple sandpiper, in splendid plumage: it rose off the 

 low rocks close to the sea at the report of my gun, flew out to sea for 

 a long distance, in the teeth of a gale of wind, and then turned and 

 flew back, and alighted tin's time on the top of the island amongst 

 some bent grass : I failed, however, in seeing it again. Took to-day 

 a good many eggs, amongst which were two nests of the great black- 

 backed gull's, lesser blackbacked gull's, herring gull's (comparatively 

 scarce here), common gull's, oystercatcher's, kestrel's, &c. Saw an 

 eyrie of a peregrine : collector had tried to take the eggs, but could 

 not; saw also a buzzard's nest with young, not removed more than a 

 hundred and fifty yards from the falcon's. A squall struck our boat 

 in Cairnbawn Loch and tore our sheet, when four miles and a half 

 from the ferry, so we had to row that distance. Heard that a corre- 

 spondent in the east of the county has for me the following eggs: — 

 greenshank's, hen harrier's, merlin's, woodcock's, shieldrake's, and 

 commoner things, such as redshank's and ringed dotterel's. 



