( 210 ) 
AN OBSERVATIONAL DIARY ON THE DOMESTIC 
HABITS OF THE RED-THROATED DIVER (CO- 
LYMBUS SHEPTENTRIONALIS). 
By Epmunp S£ELows. 
(Concluded from p. 180.) 
July 27th.—In situ at 10.50 a.m., and see, at first, only one 
chick by itself, some way out from the bay. It swims up the 
loch, and I then see the other chick at the farther end. After a 
little the mother bird, as I take her to be, comes out of the bay 
and joins the chick, and shortly afterwards the male (certainly 
the larger bird) flies in with a fish, which he gives to the chick 
—the mother’s chick as I take it to be—the latter taking it from 
the bill. Both parents now stay about, for a little, on this part 
of the loch, they being either with the one or the other, or a 
little apart, and whilst the male now several times utters his 
deep guttural quack, as one may call it, the female responds 
with a hoarse, strained note which I have not heard before. 
Nothing comes of this, however, and, at about 11.40, the female— 
that is to say, the smaller bird—flies away. 
All this is very revolutionary. In the first place, the mother’s 
chick—as I have hitherto considered it—swimming out into the 
body of the loch whilst the mother is in the bay is unusual, and 
now the male, instead of going, with his fish, to his own chick, 
who remains alone at the upper end of the loch, feeds the 
mother’s chick, and remains with this one after the mother has 
flown away ; for it is now within a few minutes of 1, and he has 
not left it, keeping with it on the lower part of the loch, as the 
mother used to before she moved to the bay. 
Some time between 1.30 and 2 p.m. the female returns, and 
probably feeds this same chick again, as the three birds are all 
together when I see her at what can only be a few moments 
after her arrival, though, not feeling very well, 1 miss both this 
and the other. It is the female, too, I think, who, a little while 
afterwards, flies off again, leaving the male with the same chick, 
and, after awhile, these two swim into the bay. A constant wind 
has driven me into my old place, which is more sheltered, and 
