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212 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
since yesterday, at any rate, the male bird’s habit of sitting 
at a certain spot by the water’s edge, in company with one of the 
two chicks, has been discontinued. This chick, which has to-day ~ 
sat for eight hours unfed, is noticeably smaller than the other 
one. The question arises, Is it sickly and going to die, and has 
the parent transferred its attentions to the healthier one, because 
it divines this ? 
Whilst walking round the loch, to-day, I came upon the nest 
of these Divers. Itissome halfway along it, and instead of being 
just on the edge of the water—as is the case with the other one 
I found—it is some four or five feet away from it on the top of a 
fairly high hillock, at the foot of which is the loch. These facts 
seem remarkable, and explain my not having seen the nest 
before, since I only looked close along the water’s edge. This nest 
is not a mound, as was the other, but a mere shallow depression 
amidst the grass, and in this some moss and heather had been 
laid. The height of the bank where the birds, whilst incubating, 
had ascended, to climb up the hill, was some six or eight inches, 
and the exact place was instantly seen, since it had been worn 
into a sort of sloping slide, very much like those made by 
Otters where they enter and leave the water, which I have often 
seen. 
July 28th.—In situ about 12.40 p.m., and just see one of the 
birds, for a moment, on the water, before it disappears. After 
awhile I see one of the chicks at the upper end of the loch, and 
at 12.50 the male (I think) swims out of the bay with a long 
eel-like fish, as all the others have been—a sand-eel, I suppose— 
in his bill. He dives up the loch, feeds the chick with it, and 
then, as it were, brings the latter down the length of the loch 
into the bay. The chick, I think, would not have come of itself, 
for it is a very windy, though a very fine day, and the loch is all 
in waves. But which chick is this? Is it the one which used 
always to stay at the upper end of the loch—in the little basin 
there—and rest with one of the parents behind the point, or the 
one which used to stay as constantly at the other end of the 
water? Whichever it was, 1 saw only one chick, at intervals, 
during the day. At about 7 p.m. I saw it for the last time, and 
I then, before leaving, walked round the little basin at the upper 
end, expecting to see the other—the one that has always kept 
