40 6 



DUCKS. 



visible. They swim and dive with wonderful velocity, but they 

 rarely fly, and then their flight is performed heavily and high in 

 the air. The eggs, which are two to three in number, are deposited 

 on the bare ground or in a nest composed of dry weeds ; in cither 

 case they arc- placed near the water's edge. 





Fig. 200.— Thk Gkeat NoiiTiiERN Diver (Colyiitbits glacialii). 



The type of the sub-family — 



The Northern Diver {Colymbus ^^ladalis) is common on all the coasts 

 of the North Sea, as well as on the inland lakes of high latitudes. Its prin- 

 cipal food consists of fish, and when inhabiting the ocean, the different species 

 of herring afford it an abundant supply. Its powers of swimming and diving 

 are very remarkable, particularly the latter, which it is constantly exercising, 

 either in pursuit of prey or to escape observation. 



"To see them from some promontory, against which the air and the sea are 

 setting full wind and tide, and driving before them myriads of herrings and 

 other surface fishes, is a glorious sight. They dash along the surface, they 

 dart under it, they bounce up again, they bore through the advancing waves, 

 and when the billow breaks in foam, and thunders over them, and the spec- 

 tator naturally concludes that they are buried for ever in the deep, up they 

 spring to the surface of the unbroken water farther from the land, as though 

 exulting in the tumults of the elements." — MuDlE. 



