Birds. 2015 



male greenshank with a perfect egg in her, evidently, from the state of the ovaries, 

 the last of the four, which from appearances she must have laid in a very short time : 

 we searched in vain for the nest. The greenshank is by no means uncommon here. 

 On another small loch we flushed a female golden-eye. The wigeon breeds here in 

 tolerable abundance ; also the redshank and curlew. On Loch Maddie we saw three 

 fine specimens of the black-throated diver, but from their wonderful power of diving 

 we fired five ineffectual shots at them : they evidently had not commenced breeding. 

 We saw on the same loch a few pairs of the gray-legged goose, and found one egg, 

 which is rather smaller than that of the bean goose, and more pointed at the smaller 

 end. The hooded crow breeds on the islands of the loch in great abundance, building 

 on trees a nest veiy similar to the carrion crow, and laying four or five eggs, rather 

 smaller than the carrion crow, of a greenish-blue colour freckled with brown. 



Near Laing, on Loch Shin, we saw another pair of black-throated divers, which 

 were very shy. At Bonar bridge, on the borders of Ross-shire and Sutherlandshire, 

 we found a small collection of birds made in this district by William Dunbar: among 

 the most interesting were a fine osprey and two eggs, taken on the 15th of May near 

 Scourie, from an island in one of the numerous lochs of that district : a black-throated 

 diver and its egg, taken from Loch Urgill, near Inchuadamph, on the 2 1st of May ; 

 it was a male bird in very fine plumage : a fine specimen of Buffon's skua, killed by 

 the gamekeeper looking over the Bonar bridge district in 1846. Between Bonar 

 bridge and the west coast, opposite Skye, we did not observe much beyond several pairs 

 of wigeon ; a white-tailed eagle near Loch Alsh, on the 26th of May ; a fine specimen 

 of the northern diver on the 28th, between Loch Alsh and Kyleakin ; and in the same 

 locality, innumerable oyster-catchers, two or three pairs of the red-breasted merganser, 

 and the common linnet of the north of Scotland, namely, the twite, in great abun- 

 dance. 



Should it be agreeable to you, I will send you an account of our discoveries in the 

 outer Hebrides and St. Kilda, at a future time ; and will merely just add a list of the 

 birds seen in the counties of Sutherland and Ross, with an account of a successful 

 expeditiSn in search of that rare bird the black- throated diver. On a small loch be- 

 tween Inchnadamph and Oikel, on the 21st of June, close to the road-side, we got 

 sight of a fine pair of these birds. We procured a boat, and the assistance of Mr. 

 John Sutherland, the duke's gamekeeper, and chased them for at least three hours, 

 during which time they only allowed us once to get within shot: they never once took 

 wing, but the rapidity of their diving was wonderful, sometimes keeping under water 

 near two minutes, and coming up in quite a contrary direction a quarter of a mile off. 

 We then dragged our boat a mile over the moor, to Loch Urgill, a large loch, with two 

 large islands and two or three small islets, perhaps not more than ten yards long by 

 four wide. Here a nest had been taken in the month of May. Upon coming in 

 sight of the loch, we saw through our glass a pair of black-throated divers close to the 

 islet where the eggs had been taken ; and here again the same pair had chosen exact- 

 ly the same spot for nidification, and we discovered an egg laid without any nest close 

 to the water's edge. While the keeper concealed himself, in hopes of getting a shot 

 at the parent birds, we took another survey of the lake ; and close to another islet, 

 about half a mile from the one previously mentioned, we espied another pair, and 

 again we found two eggs, — in this case placed in a nest made of a few rushes and 

 dried grass, about a yard from the water. In neither case were we fortunate enough 

 to get the old birds, though we were concealed till near dusk, so cautious are they, ex- 



