DOMESTIC HABITS OF RED-THROATED DIVER. 173 
ming the water, and then appears, again, above the hillocks just 
as before. I now follow her flight for a long time—or rather 
way—first with my eyes and then with the glasses. She goes 
high in the air, beyond the farthest line of hills, in the direction 
of the sea, so that she must, I think, when I lose her, be over 
the sea, following the coast-line, and prepared, it may well be, 
to descend into some accustomed bay or inlet. Why she does 
not go more directly to the point I do not know, but a circling 
mode of approach seems customary with these birds. The 
chick, again left to itself, goes, as before, into the bay. 
4.35.—Female down again. She descends at the upper end 
of the loch, but without touching the water, glides just over it 
with her wings raised, and not pulsating, and disappears into 
the bay—a very graceful performance. I unfortunately forgot 
to make a point of seeing whether she carried a fish, but, as I 
cannot remember that she did, I feel sure she did not, for had 
she done so it must have struck me. Now—at 4.40—she and 
the chick come swimming out of the bay. They swim up to the 
head of the loch, and are joined, as before, by the other chick, 
coming from beyond the point. They swim down the loch 
again, and, as the chicks press after the dam, she dives once and 
then again. The second time she must have come up in the 
bay, into which the chicks swim, and at present I see no more of 
any of them. I should have thought that the mother was off 
again, but for the chicks staying there—for, were they left alone, 
they would probably go up the loch. Ata few minutes past 5, 
one of the chicks issues from the bay, and this poor little thing 
(for I believe it to be the unfed one) swims all the way back to 
the point, by itself, and disappears round it, first, however, going 
round another point, at the opposite side, from which it soon 
comes out. I thought, from this, that the mother had again 
flown away, but, walking till my eyes were just above the crest, 
saw both her and the other chick in the bay, and retreated 
without having disturbed them. In a little while they swim out 
and up the loch, and then back again, without being joined by 
the chick that has gone round the point. At 5.30 the female 
again, dives into the bay, followed by her chick. As far as 
I have been able to observe, therefore, one chick only has been 
fed from 12 o’clock, it being now 5.30, and that one only once. 
