S4 NATCRAL HISTORY OF THE DIVERS. 



small dogs; but they have never been observed to pet fully 

 on wing, or even to attempt an elevated flight. The young 

 ones, which are seen accompanying them, are always, I 

 learned, of sufficient size, to render it possible that they 



Perhaps breeds may have come from a great distance, perhaps Iceland, 



far to the north. Norwayj G r Greenland : this is an important remark, and 

 the testimony was uniform. 



There is no In regard to the alleged hole under the wing, I can as- 



lark b\ iTl sure voul< correspondent, that no such hole exists. I affirm 



low under ihe this, not only from having myself examined prepared spe- 



VW S- cimens of the immer, in which no trace of such a cavity 



existed ; but on the authority of those who have shot the 

 bird, or caught it, as sometimes happens, on a baited hook 

 on a sunk line ; and who declared, that on examination 

 they found no greater hollow under the wing of the ember, 

 than may be seen under the wing of the common goose. 

 The same thing may be affirmed of the northern diver. I 

 have at different times procured large and full grown spe- 

 cimens of this beautiful bird, which were found entangled 

 in nets set in the Frith of Forth for thornback and skate, in 

 the months of April and May ; and in none of these were 

 there any remarkable hollows under the wing. 



Accounts given I shall close these remarks (which have already, perhaps, 



thors r ° US aU " extena *ed to to ° g reat a length) with some slight notice of 

 the accounts to be found in books. 



Wallace, sen. The elder Wallace, in his History of Orkney, 16Q2, 

 gravely states, that the emmer " has its nest and hatches 



Brand. its eggs under the water. 1 * Brand, a visitor sent to the is- 



lands by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 

 in his Description, published 1701, repeats the same story, 

 with equal solemnity : " It hath its nest wherein it hatcheth 

 its eggs, one or two at once, under the water at the foot of 



Sir R. Sibbald. a rock, as they informed me hath been found." Sir Robert 



Sibbald, rather incautiously following these authors, gives a 



similar account. The other notion, of its hatching its eggs 



Pontoppidan. under the w r ing, is countenanced by Pontoppidan, in his 



History of Norway, 1751. 



Horrebow. Horrebow, however, in his Natural History of Iceland, 



1758, gives a much more natural and rational account. 



" The /cm," he says, " is unmolested; for the people give 



themselves 



