534 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
flanks and under tail-coverts dusky, muddled with 
white. Another of my specimens is much paler all 
over, and has little or no olive mixed with the 
brown: this is a much younger bird—probably a 
bird of the year. 
Yarrell says the eggs when first laid are perfectly 
white, but soon become stained with greenish yellow 
and brown from being in contact with decaying 
vegetable matter and soil from the feet of the bird: 
two in my collection are yellowish brown, and do not 
look as if they had ever been quite white. 
GreAT NortTHERN Diver, Colymbus glactalis. 
The Great Northern Diver is by no means a com- 
mon visitor to this county, either to the shores or 
the inland waters: on the shore, indeed, I have 
never seen or heard of a specimen, but one or two 
immature birds have occurred in the inland ponds 
at Chargot; some of these were preserved, and are, 
I believe, still at Sandhill Park: one specimen, a 
mature bird changing to winter plumage, was shot 
on the river at Ninehead, and is still in the collection 
of Mr. Sanford. As far as the coast line is con- 
cerned, all the Divers probably stop short with the 
muddy water, which generally reaches a little below 
Minehead; so they may occasionally come up as far 
as Porlock Bay, as I know they are not uncommon in 
immature plumage a little lower down the coast at 
Ilfracombe. The bird has also made its appearance 
on a pond in the neighbouring, but still more inland, 
