CHAP. XXVII.] VARIETIES OF GULLS. 215 
fortnight or more in this manner, they betake themselves to their 
breeding-place, which is generally either some rushy and quiet 
pool or island on some mountain lake, where they can breed and 
rear their young unmolested. There are several lochs in this 
neighbourhood where they breed. ‘One they chiefly resort to is 
a small piece of water in the forest of Darnaway, where they are 
not allowed to be annoyed or disturbed during the tinve of incu- 
bation. In these places their nests are placed as close as possible 
to each other, and from the constant noise and flying backwards 
and forwards of the birds, one would suppose that the greatest 
confusion must prevail amongst their crowded commonwealth, 
but every bird knows and attends to her own nest, and though 
their cries sound angry and harsh, the greatest amity and the 
strictest peace are preserved. Though crossing and jostling each 
other in all directions, they never appear to quarrel or fight. On 
the contrary, the birds all unite and make common cause against 
any enemy, man or beast, that approaches them, or whose pre- 
sence seems to threaten danger. I once took a boat to a moun- 
tain lake in Inverness-shire, where thousands of these birds bred 
on some small islands which dot the surface of the water. The 
gulls, though not exactly attacking me, dashed unceasingly so 
close to my head that I felt the wind of their wings, and I some- 
times really feared some one more venturous than the rest might 
drive his bill into my eyes. They had probably never had a 
visitor to their islands before. The shepherds having a kind of 
superstitious dread of the place, from its being supposed to be 
haunted ground, never attempt to cross to the islands by swim- 
ming or wading. The greater part of the largest island was ab- 
solutely covered with eggs, laid in small hollows scraped by the 
birds, with little pretensions to any other kind of nest. I could 
scarcely walk without treading on them. Close to the edge of 
the water, indeed, so near that the nest was always wet, was the 
domicile of a pair of black-throated divers, or loon, with a couple 
of long greenish-coloured eggs. The old birds swam out to a 
short distance, and watched me with great interest, uttering their 
strange hollow call. There were several smaller islands, or 
points of rock, appearing above the water, on each of which a 
pair of black-hacked gulls had made their nest, constructed with 
more care and skill than those of their black-headed cousins. 
