DOMESTIC HABITS OF RED-THROATED DIVER. 87 
is that the parent with whom the one chick had remained, when 
the family separation took place, had conducted it to its partner, 
to rest with the other one, and then, catching sight of the same 
strange bird, that had returned without my remarking it, had 
hurried down to expel it once more. Having done so, it dived 
out into the body of the loch, as it had on the previous occasion. 
After this I saw the two chicks—first alone, and then with one of 
the parents, at the farther end of the loch, near the point where 
they had been resting, and here, at 9 or 9.15 p.m., they dis- 
appeared, and the loch now seemed empty. 
Probably the three were again resting, for the short night, 
where they had been before, whilst the partner bird had flown 
away. The latter, however, might have been resting too, but 
had I sat still where I was, the whole time, instead of leaving my 
position, a little previously, to ascertain something which I might 
very well have left alone, I might have been assured in regard 
to this. When one is unobserved, and has a good post for ob- 
servation, in general, it is a mistake to quit it for any observation 
in particular, unless this is very important indeed—as was by no 
means the case here. 
Before this, 1 had observed another pair of young Red-throated 
Divers diving as if for food, whilst their dam floated near them, 
though I could never detect anything in their bills when they 
came up. I also saw these chicks—I think both of them, 
but, at any rate, the act was more than twice repeated—rear 
themselves out of the water, and touch, with their bills, the bill 
of the dam, who, however, made no response to this action. 
The action of the bird to whom, with its mate, the loch 
belongs, as one may say, when the stranger Diver came down 
upon it, was very interesting to see. Its whole look and aspect 
was instantly transformed, and the change from gentle placidity, 
with graceful, sinuous contours, to violent motion and a much 
more angular style, was most dramatic. 
It was not far short of 10 when I set off home. It was rain- 
ing, and the mists were lying thick on all the higher eminences. 
Before very long, I had completely lost my way, and in deep 
gloom, with a white sea all around me, I had nothing to do but 
to wait till it lightened and the mists lifted. I alternately 
walked up and down, sat or lay down, trying in vain to sleep 
