15 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
quent on the Banffshire coast. It also inhabits the northern 
parts of Sutherlandshire; and Mr. Selby mentions that a pair 
were observed near the mouth ef the Durness Frith in full 
summer plumage. One was shot off the mouth of the Spey, 
which was found to contain no fewer than nineteen flounders 
and a salmon-trout. In Orkney, as before mentioned, young 
birds are common at all seasons of the year, and old ones, 
which are more abundant in winter, are not unfrequently 
seen in summer, and are therefore believed to breed in the 
islands, that is, some pairs, for the generality leave about the 
latter end of May or beginning of June. In the Hebrides, 
Mr. Macgillivray mentions that they were observed in plenty 
till the beginning of that month. In Shetland, too, the bird 
is, or rather used to be, plentiful. Mr. Robert Dunn shot 
one in Hammer Voe, in the parish of Northmaven, on the 
28th. of June. It was in perfect plumage, and he was 
informed that it had been there all the summer. 
In Ireland it has occasionally occurred on the Wexford 
and other shores, and Dr. Fleming has recorded the occurrence 
of one off the coast of Waterford, in the month of July, 
1816. Thomas Eyton, Esq., of Eyton, mentions its appear- 
ance in North Wales; and Mr. Dillwyn has noted it in the 
vicinity of Swansea. 
The sea is mainly the resort of this species, but it is 
occasionally found on rivers, and breeds on the larger ones 
and inland Jakes;—this chiefly within the polar circle. St. 
Kilda’s ‘lonely isle’ is one of their more southerly stations. 
They are very shy in their natural habits, nevertheless they 
have been kept for some time in confinement, when well 
supplied with water. They are courageous as well as powerful 
birds, and the blows that they are able to give are formidable 
from their size and strength. 
Montagu says, ‘A Northern Diver, taken alive, was kept 
in a pond for some months, which gave us an opportunity 
of attending to its manners. In a few days it became extremely 
docile, would come at the call from one side of the pond to 
the other, and would take food from the hand. The young, 
when only a day or two old, are Jed to the water by their 
mother. 
The following account is quoted by Yarrell, as given by 
Mr. Thomas Nuttall, of Boston, who kept another for some 
time:—‘A young bird of this species which I obtained in 
the Salt Marsh at Chelsea Beach, and transferred to a fish- 
