90 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
It is now 5.45 and they are still there, nor hag the female, 
who flew away, at 3.51, yet returned. 
At 5.55, I see the female on the loch again; she has evidently 
but just come down and has a fish in her bill, which looks like 
a sand-eel—carrying it, as does a Guillemot, lengthways 
within her bill. With this she dives right up the loch, and 
then swims round the point, with it, where the other three 
have, all the time, been. One of the chicks appears, for a 
moment, just beyond the point, tail first, and disappears 
round it, again. Then the female comes out from it, swims 
to the opposite side, dives to the end of the loch, then swims 
back, preening herself, rises on the water and flaps her 
wings, turns on her side, as it were, showing the white, 
gleaming breast and ventral surface, thrusts out a leg behind, 
and waggles it, &c., all as does the Great Crested Grebe, which, 
in their actions and domestic life, these birds seem greatly to 
resemble. The three are still (at 6.15) invisible behind the 
point, and the mother floats alone, quietly now, and doubtless 
‘‘ with the gratifying feeling that her duty has been done,” on 
the still surface of the little loch. It must, I think, be the 
mother, for she certainly looks considerably smaller than the 
other parent bird. While thus resting, a pair of Black-backed 
Gulls that have—or rather have had—their nest upon the banks 
of the loch, at this lower end, take umbrage, apparently, at her 
‘proximity and fly over and around her, in a half threatening 
way, causing her to look conscious, and prepared for any act 
of hostility. 
Now, at 6.35, she swims up the loch, and one of the chicks 
comes out from the point, to her, but soon goes back behind it 
again. But for this slight emergence, and the previous one, 
when the fish was brought, the male Diver, and the two chicks, 
have been stationary behind this point of land—for there is no 
stretch of water beyond it—ever since 5.238. Anyone would 
think that the loch was occupied solely by the female bird, 
who, having regard to what occurred yesterday, would seem 
to act the part of sentinel and guardian of the family 
domain. 
6.50. The rest of the family now appear round the little 
grassy projection, and swim down the loch, to join the female, 
