32



Rav. F. L. Blathwayt,



One day, however, we had more success. Knowing of a pair

breeding on a small hill loch which only contained one islet, we

determined to creep up very quietly in the hopes of seeing one

of the birds on land. The excitement of that stalk was very

great. A long detour was first of all necessary ; and then we

crawled to the top of some rising ground, overlooking the loch,

and crouched behind a pile of rock, which much resembled a

Dartmoor ‘ tor.’ Over this shelter we raised our heads inch by

inch, and soon saw the Divers on the water near their island

home. They evidently had no knowledge of our approach for

we had not waited a minute before one of them, probably the

female, swam towards the islet and settled down upon her eggs.

Two strong pairs of field-glasses were “ glued ” upon her as she

left the water, and so every movement could be clearly followed.

She scrambled awkwardly over the stones in the shallow water

and then crossed the five or six feet of turf between the margin

and her eggs by shuffling along on her breast, using her legs and

feet to propel her much as she would do in the water, and

never once standing upright. There was nothing graceful about

the performance, and it was pretty evident that the bird was not

at all at her ease on land. On reaching her nest she raised her

breast slightly and took a few seconds arranging her eggs com¬

fortably beneath her before she settled down. We then showed

our heads over the rock and expected she would leave the eggs at

once. Her mate gave a hoarse croak of alarm, but the sitting

bird appeared afraid to move at first, and kept twisting her head

about in all directions as if uncertain what sort of danger

threatened her. When we advanced towards her she shuffled

awkwardly off her eggs, scrambled hurriedly along on her breast

towards the water and instantly dived, coming up again in the

loch at some distance from the islet. After watching this bird on

the land, it seemed to us that it would have been quite impossible

for her to sit up erect, in the way in which this class of birds

may so often be seen set up in cases or represented in pictures.


The other pair of eggs we saw were placed on a very small

islet in a much larger loch, and were laid so close to the water

that a slight rise would certainly have covered them. A few feet

away was a nest and eggs of the Greater Black-backed Gull



