THE FISHMEN 



with its dark back, the under parts of the bird being 

 white. 



The commonest species is the red-throated diver 

 (C septentrionalis) , which has an elongated colour patch 

 on its throat as an adult, when in its summer dress, which 

 gives the bird its name. It inhabits the north temperate 

 zone of both hemispheres. 



C. glacialis has been said to breed in Scotland and in 

 Norway, but (with the exception of Iceland) it is doubt- 

 ful if it is indigenous to the Old World. 



Two remarkable occurrences in connection with the 

 great northern diver may be of interest. According to 

 J. Vaughan Thompson in his Natural History of Ireland, 

 one of these divers was shot off the Irish coast some years 

 ago, and was found to have ''an arrow headed with 

 copper sticking through its neck'^' ; while another diver of 

 the same species was found dead in Kalbaksfjord in The 

 Faeroes with an iron-tipped bone dart fast under its 

 wing. Considering that both birds had apparently crossed 

 the Atlantic, and that darts or arrows in birds are not 

 common occurrences, it is remarkable that these things 

 should have happened to birds of this one species, out of 

 the thousands of species of known birds. 



The divers go under water without exertion, and, 

 when swimming, their bodies are almost entirely im- 

 mersed — only the head and neck appearing above the 

 surface. After swimming for some time hke this they 

 will suddenly submerge completely and travel under 

 water for considerable distances without coming up 

 again. In contrast with their clumsiness on land they 

 show great agility both on the surface and when sub- 

 merged, and may be regarded as serious rivals to human 

 divers in their feats of underwater endurance. There are 

 well-authenticated cases of the great northern diver 

 remaining completely under water for eight minutes and 

 longer. 



Frank Lane in his Nature Parade gives some remarkable 



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