196 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 



brim, Temm. Northern or Great Northern Diver 

 of British authors. Dimmer or Imler Diver, the 

 young). This very handsome bird occurs on the 

 shores of England, during winter, in a manner 

 similar to the bird last described, but less frequently ; 

 and upon all the British or Irish coasts it is much 

 more rare. In the range of our own excursions, we 

 have seen it in spring more plentiful in the Firth 

 of Forth than elsewhere, frequenting the vicinity 

 of the oyster- scalps, and there well known to the 

 fishermen from its loud and monotonous call.* We 

 have never been able to come up with this bird on 

 the water, and all the exertions of our rowers could 

 not gain oue yard upon it ; but it is sometimes 

 taken in nets and at set lines. In the north of Scot- 

 land and the Orkney and Shetland Isles it dis- 

 appears in full plumage in June, and in none of the 

 excursions which have within these few years been 

 made there have the nest or eggs been discovered. 

 We saw a pair on the coast of Sutherland in the 

 month of June in their perfect dress ; these might 

 have been incubating on some of the adjacent islands, 

 as it was at least a fortnight after we had procured 

 the young of the Black-throated Diver in the op- 

 posite side of the county ; at the same time, they 

 were the only birds we saw in many suitable locali- 

 ties. The north of Europe does not even serve it 

 for a breeding-ground ; all those gentlemen, to whose 



* The Laplanders believe, that if a person hear the cry of 

 any of the divers in the spring, and while fasting, the milk 

 from his flocks will not curdle for the whole year. Leemim. 



