DOMESTIC HABITS OF RED-THROATED DIVER. 85 
During all this time the other parent, which I then took to 
be the male, either remained motionless, or almost so, on a 
particular part of the water, some way off, or swam up, at in- 
tervals, to where the others were resting. This he did some 
three or four times, but only once—the first time—went close 
to the point, and then, all at once, I saw one of the chicks with 
him, though I had missed seeing it swim out. In a minute or 
two it returned to the resting-place, whilst the parent swam down 
the loch again. I was struck by the way in which, for a long 
time, this latter bird kept just, as it seemed, on one spot of the 
water, but at any rate in very much the same place. Another 
thing that struck me was the infrequency with which the chicks 
were fed. I assume that from 12 to 2, during all which time I 
could see nothing either of them or the parents, they were rest- 
ing under the wings of either one or the other of the latter. 
From 2, or at any rate from 2.80 to 6, I was able to account for 
them, and only once was a fish brought in, as recorded. This, 
presumably, was eaten by only one of the chicks, so that for 6 
hours, as @ minimum, the other of them had had nothing. The 
chicks never appeared to feed themselves, and the only time 
they dived was when a gull made a sort of stoop at them. They 
were then at some distance from the parent accompanying them, 
and disappeared all in a moment. LHvidently, young though 
they are, they know how to take care of themselves. 
July 17th or 18th.—Got to the loch again, and into proper 
position, at about 6.20 p.m., and had the pleasure of seeing both 
the parent birds, with their young ones—the whole family— 
together. They presented a very pretty picture, the old birds 
sliding slowly and gracefully about on the water, now swimming 
affectionately together, as it seemed, now separating a little, 
when, for the most part, each one drew a chick with it, and I 
could not now observe that the latter looked more to one of 
their dams than the other—-each of them sometimes having both 
for a little. For a considerable time, both of the old birds, thus 
accompanied, kept swimming or gliding between a certain point 
of the shore, and a little way out again, and I noticed that one 
—I think the female—was the leader in this monotonous ac- 
tivity, the other following, as it were acquiescently, but not 
going so far. This was towards the lower, or, rather, my end of 
