THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 175 



flung a pair of legs after the bird, which, fully accounts 

 for their singularly retrograde situation. It is for the 

 same reason, according to Pontoppidan, that the bird 

 makes its nest close to the water, so that it can roll 

 off the nest into its natural element without using its 

 legs at all. The Norwegian peasants declare that 

 they know when stormy weather is approaching, by 

 the peculiar cry which the immer then utters. 



Pontoppidan says of this bird, (( Its wings are so 

 short, it can hardly raise itself with them; and its 

 legs are so far back that they are not so much used 

 to walk with as to paddle along the water ; on which 

 account the immer is never seen to come ashore, ex- 

 cepting in the week before Christmas, wherefore the 

 fourth Sunday in Advent is called by the people Immer, 

 or as the people express it, Ommer Sunday." The 

 bishop does not give an altogether incorrect descrip- 

 tion of this species, but some of his remarks are 

 amusing, as for example, that the bird has two holes 

 under its wings, wherein it deposits its eggs, which 

 it carries about with it, hatching them with as much 

 facility on the water, as other birds do on dry land. 



The great northern diver does not migrate, but 

 remains on the water until the ice forms, wherefore it 

 is called in Norway the iislom, or ice loon. The Nor- 

 wegian peasants esteem its flesh, with which they 

 generally make soup. The nest is generally made on 

 some small island in the centre of a lake ; it contains 

 two eggs of a yellowish-gray, marked with brown 

 spots. One of the eggs is generally addled, which, 

 perhaps, accounts for the statement that the female 

 always destroys one of its young. 



The great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) is pretty 



