310 



THE GEEAT NORTHEEN DIVER 



as the sides of the cauld were bare and afforded little or no 

 concealment. He, however, waited until the bird dived, and 

 then ran forward within range of the hole in the ice. When 

 the Diver came up it had a large trout in its bill, and he 

 shot it quite dead. A new difficulty then presented itself 

 to him, namely, how he should get the bird which he had 

 killed, for he was afraid to venture on the ice lest it should 

 break, the water being very deep. His anxiety to secure 

 the specimen was so great, however, that it overcame his 

 fear, and he went cautiously towards the hole, trying the 

 strength of the ice as he proceeded with the butt of his gun, 

 and by this means he succeeded in securing the specimen. 

 The Eev. Thomas S. Goldie, minister of Coldstream, writing 

 in 1834, records that "a gentleman some years ago suc- 

 ceeded in killing a Great Northern Diver " in that parish.^ 

 In August 1884, Mrs. Greet of Birch Hill, Norham, kindly 

 showed me a stuffed specimen of this bird which had been 

 shot on the Tweed there in February 1865. 

 Its food consists of fish and crustaceans. 



1 New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. ii. (Berwickshire), p. 206. 







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