lyS allkn's naturalist's licrary- 



Mr. Chapman proceeds : — " I do not believe that Divers or 

 Grebes ever go ashore at any time of the year. Some of them 

 ' scuffle ' on their breasts for a few yards to their nests, which 

 are never many feet from the water, not further than to avoid 

 a bit of flood, and are generally at^ or /;z, it ; but this is just a 

 'Seal'-like progression, all legs and wings going, when the bird 

 is alarmed at the nest ; and the track to and fro is plainly 

 visible. Beyond thus merely landing on some flat lake-shore 

 or low islet, I never in my life saw either Grebe or Diver 

 ashore, and never upright, or otherwise than absolutely hori- 

 zontal. True, in the water, vvhen swimming, they do sit upright 

 to flap or ' yowl,' but never on land, because they cannot. 



" They never go ashore to preen or dry themselves, in the 

 warm sun, on sand-banks ; they do all that afloat, and their 

 whole lives are spent afloat, though I have once or twice seen 

 Red-throated Divers alongside the edge of a sandbank — but 

 still quite afloat, and, of course, horizontal. They never let 

 the tide ebb away and leave them dry, as Swans, Geese, and 

 Game-Ducks always do, and even Diving-Ducks, as Scaup and 

 Golden-eye, occasionally, but very rarely, do." 



THE TRUE DIVERS. GENUS COLYMBUS. 



Colymlms^ Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 220 (1766). 

 Type, probably C. glacialis (Linn.). 

 The characters of the genus are those of the Order Colyvibi- 

 formes^ and of the single Family ColyiiihidiC. 



The Divers are all birds of the Northern Palosartic and 

 Nearctic Regions, coming a little to the southward in winter. 

 Their general habits have been sketched in Mr. Abel Chap- 

 man's note given above. 



I. THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. COI^YMBUS GLACIALIS. 



Colymhiis glacialis^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 221 (1766); Macgill. 

 Brit. B. V. p. 283 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 609, 

 pi. 626 (1880); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 201 (1883); 

 Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iv. p. 96 (1884) ; Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii p. 402 (1885); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. 

 p. 693 (1889); Lilford, Col Fig. Brit. B. part xxv. (1893). 



