172 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
3 p.m.—The female flies down on to the loch with a long-look- 
ing fish, of much larger size than is usual, in her bill, and, in a 
moment or two, after seeming to be pleased with her prize, she 
dives with it, and disappears for a little while, after which she and 
the chick appear, swimming out of the bay together, and go up to 
the other end of the loch, but do not round the resting-point, as 
I may call it, nor does the second chick, which I suppose to be, 
all this while, there, appear. The female bird has therefore 
been away for two hours, all but nine minutes, having left at 1.9. 
The male left at 1.50, and has not yet returned. The female 
now keeps at the upper end of the loch, with the chick, but 
without rounding the point. I put down the glasses for a 
moment to make this entry, and, before I do make it, raise them 
again. The second chick is then also with her, and the three 
now swim down the loch together. It is pretty now to see the 
chicks, who are still quite small, going through the same preen- 
ing and flapping actions as their big parents. They turn on 
their sides, in the water, showing, not a large white, but a small 
grey under surface, and thrust out and waggle behind them a 
bluish-looking webbed foot, which looks as large as their heads. 
Then, stretching up their little bodies in the water, they flap 
their little wings vigorously, after which one of them dives. At 
3.30 all make up the loch, and disappear and reappear again, 
round the point, several times. They then retraverse the loch, 
when the mother, diving away from both, into the bay again, 
appears the next moment, on the wing, rising above the hillocks 
that encloseit. This is at 3.40, and in just two minutes she comes 
down on the water again, but without bringing a fish. During 
her absence the chicks have swum up the loch by themselves, 
and one has gone round the point, but the other keeps out on 
the open water. When the mother returns (first just outside the 
bay, and then across to her usual point at my end of the loch) 
this chick gradually works its way down to her, and the two are 
now together again. Thus the usual position of affairs—one 
chick with the mother, on the water, at one end of the loch, and 
the other at the other end, resting, probably on land, round the 
point—again obtains. It is now just as it was before the female 
flew away, for a fish. 
4.8.—Female off again, vid the bay, which she enters, skim- 
