510 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
The Goldeneye is a very expert swimmer and 
diver, so much so that, like many others of this 
family, it is often a work of considerable difficulty to 
recover a winged bird if it falls into the water. In 
the pages of the ‘ Zoologist’ Dr. Saxby gives many 
accounts of his difficulties in getting wounded birds, 
and takes the opportunity of expressing his disbelief 
in a notion that is, to a certain extent, prevalent— 
that these birds when wounded dive and hold on to 
the weeds by their mouths till they drown them- 
selves. In this disbelief I quite agree with him: in 
inland waters where there are rushes and weeds 
these birds—and even the Wild Duck, which is not 
nearly so much of a diver—dive into some weedy 
part, where they le perfectly concealed, allowing 
nothing but a very small portion of the bill, just 
enough to admit air, to appear above water: if there 
are no weeds I have known them conceal themselves 
in the same way under cover of any overhanging 
srass or unevenness of the bank, and so quietly do 
they rise for the purpose, putting their bills above 
water, that even in a still quiet pond hardly any 
circles are made on the water by this operation to 
attract attention. In the open sea, perhaps, it is 
more difficult for them to escape in this way, espe- 
cially on a calm day; but still I am sure they do so 
occasionally, making use of any little bit of floating 
sea-weed to conceal themselves, or even without any 
such help, if they make a good long dive, they may 
