BL A C K - T I I RO A T E D DI V E R.
COLTMBUS ARCTICUS,
Tnis handsome species is a summer resident on many of fho larger sheets of water in the Northern
Highlands, as well as a spring, autumn, and winter visitor to almost every portion of our southern and
eastern coasts with which I am acquainted. In the choice of a situation for their breeding-quarters the
Red- and Black-throated Divan differ considerably—the former delighting in the flat moors and fines to
he fouud iu Caithness and the east of Sutherland, while the latter prefers the grassy or sandy islauds in
hilly districts, or at least where the view is shut in by the lofty mountains whose rugged outlines prove
an endless source of attraction to the visitors to those wild and romantic regions in the west of Rossshire
and Sutherland.
Without, I believe, a single exception, every nest (if such it may he termed) of this species that
has come under my observation was placed on an island, coarse grass, moss, and heather usually forming
the site on which the eggs were laid. The fact that these plants are broken down and killed by the
weight and warmth of the body of the bird, and the depression gradually assumes the shape of her
breast, has led to the idea that a nest is constructed. This is evidently a mistake, as in several instances,
and more particularly on Loch Shin, I observed the eggs laid nn the sandy shores of the small islands
without the slightest attempt having been made by the birds to line their cradle, which was evidently
only formed by their breasts while engaged in the labour of incubation. In one instance, on an islet near
the centre of the loch, T remarked that the eggs were almost completely buried in the fine gravel which had
been gradually worked over them by the body of the uld bird while shuttling backwards and forwards from
the water. This species, though usually wary and difficult to approach, becomes exceedingly confiding
when unmolested, paying little or no attention to those intruding on their haunts*. I remarked this fact
on several of the retired lochs in the deer-forests to which the tourist aud the collector is seldom allowed
to penetrate.
Even in summer adults in perfect plumage are often seen in company on the inland waters in the
Highlands ; on the 18tfa of June, half a dozen were observed on Loch Doula, near Lairg in Sutherland.
These birds all proved exceedingly animated, eha-ing one another above and below the surface, ami giving
utterance while on wing or on the water to a variety of harsh cries aud occasionally \elpirig like a dog.
Hiving ami Huttering while pursuing or pursued, they repeatedly came up within thirty yards of where,
in company with four or five keepers and gillies, we were sitting on the rough heather-bank by the
loch-side. Some three weeks later the same summer, ten or a dozen, all in full adult plumage, were seen
on Loch Craggie, a short distance to the east of the last mentioned loch. These birds were also sportively
inclmixl, dashing about over the water with loud cries, till a parly of eight or ten parsing over, they rose