194 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



them on the coast at Bournemouth, and watched their re-appearance, 

 timing them by my watch. The best way to secure a specimen is 

 to chase them in a good fast-sailing yacht, looking out sharply for 

 them as they emerge after their dive — but in a rowing boat they 

 will always out-distance you altogether. On December 30th of 

 last year, as we were just in the narrow reach of water that joins 

 Poole Harbour with the open sea, a fine bird of this species flew 

 right over our boat from the sea into the harbour. My son, E. A. 

 Morres, who was with me, let fly at it, and hit it hard underneath, 

 but was a little behind it. It settled about half-a-mile off"; and 

 was too hard hit to dive unless closely pressed — but even then it 

 took nine barrels on the water before we secured it. It seemed to 

 dive at the shot every time, until at last it was fairly worn out. It 

 weighed nearly lOlbs., and was in good, though, of course, winter 

 plumage. Three others we saw afterwards in Studland Bay, and 

 managed to hem them in between ourselves and the shore, but our 

 boat was travelling very slowly, and in about five minutes they had 

 worked completely round us, simply by diving, and were two miles 

 away in the open sea. In November, 1882, several of these 

 birds were shot by Mr. T. M. Pike in the Bournemouth Bay, 

 in their summer dress. Hart also secured one on October 

 17th, 1872, in good summer plumage, and another on February 

 14th, ] 877, which had nearly assumed its summer garb. This 

 class of birds would seem to change their plumage in a very 

 short space of time — even in a few days ; and also vary a good 

 deal in the time of their change, possibly according to the season 

 or age of the bird. You may occasionally obtain good specimens 

 of this bird from the fishing nets, in which they helplessly entangle 

 themselves. They are not supposed generally to breed upon our 

 coasts, and are said to disappear from the Orkney and Shetland 

 Isles when they have donned their summer dress in June. But I 

 was very pleased to hear from Mr. Lionel Hinxman, who has been 

 spending some time in the extreme North of Scotland, that in the 

 early summer of the present year he came across two pairs of these 

 fine birds, with their young ones, on the West Coast ot Sutherland, 

 not far from Cape Wrath. Each pair had two young birds with 



