362 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



These are all easily distinguished from the tribes 

 of aquatic birds above referred to by the long- 

 conical bill, and by the position of the legs, which 

 are placed so far back, that when on the land 

 these birds appear to stand upright. The divers 

 are very common on almost every part of our 

 coast, and may be readily distinguished by the 

 expertness with which they carry on their pisca- 

 tory labours, diving incessantly after their finny 

 prey. The Great Northern Diver is a very hand- 

 some bird. The upper part of the body is dark 

 mottled with white, the head and neck are black 

 tinted with green, and having two rings of mot- 

 tled feathers, the under surface is white. This 

 bird is the largest of the tribe to which it belongs, 

 and visits our shores during the winter months, 

 retiring during the breeding season, like the gulls, 

 to some remote and little frequented inland lake, 

 on whose borders it rears its young. 



Another family of maritime birds comprehends 

 the guillemots, auks, razor-bills, and puffins, all 

 of which are gregarious, inhabiting the rocky 

 headlands and islets, especially on our northern 

 coasts, in immense multitudes. In those inac- 

 cessible places these birds congregate at the 

 breeding season, each of them producing a single 

 egg, which some of them place upon the bare 

 rock, and hatch by sitting upon it in their singular 

 erect posture during the requisite period. Such is 

 the fidelity with which these birds, especially the 

 guillemots, devote themselves to the all-important 

 duty of incubation, that they will suffer them- 



