i?s BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



and a wounded bird on one occasion is said to have disgorged no less than sixteen 

 young herrings. 



Montagu had a good opportunity of observing and comparing the rate at 

 which this bird can swim, both on the surface and under the water, on one 

 occasion when he succeeded in approaching, unobserved, an example fishing in a 

 canal. The bird did not attempt to fly, and, by walking and running after it, 

 Montagu was able to compute the speed of the bird, when swimming on the 

 surface at about four and a half miles an hour, and beneath the surface at between 

 six and seven. The usual distance between the place of immersion and emersion 

 appeared to be about eighty or ninety yards. 



In spring and during the breeding season these birds are very noisy, uttering 

 dismal and unearthly sounds. The note has been described as kakera, or ak, ak. 

 In the Tromso" Fjord one morning, a pair were making a most unearthly noise, 

 which I could only compare at the time to a mixture between the cackle of a 

 guinea-fowl and the bray of an ass. These cries, often noticed immediately before 

 bad weather, have earned for the bird the name of Rain Goose in the Orkney and 

 Shetland Islands, and elsewhere in the North. Saxby writes : " It is, however, 

 chiefly during rain that it delights to circle irregularly and at a considerable 

 height, uttering its peculiar note." Other provincial names are Sprat Loon, 

 Cobble, Little Naak, and Wabble (young birds on the Exe). In winter dress it is 

 the Speckled Diver of Montagu 



This Diver, when pursued, has been distinctly observed flying under water, 

 not merely paddling with its wings, as it sometimes does when feeding. I remember 

 one November day making an unsuccessful attempt on the life of a Diver on the 

 Norfolk coast. The sea was rather rough when we put out in a crab boat to try 

 and drift down within shot of the bird, a manoeuvre which is sometimes successful. 

 But when we got out we could see nothing of the bird, and after rowing and 

 drifting about for some time, came on shore again. Yet in a very short time the 

 Diver appeared about the same place where it was first observed, having doubtless, 

 aided by the broken water, kept out of sight while we were cruising about, by 

 sinking its body low in the water. On the only occasion on which I have had 

 an opportunity of observing one diving at close quarters, the bird, as far as I 

 could see, made considerable use of its wings. But this individual was making 

 shallow dives in shallow water close in shore, in the sound which separates 

 Tromso Island from the mainland, and was facing the tide which was running 

 with great force. An adult Red-throated Diver, caught alive in an exhausted state 

 one December morning in Oxfordshire, was shown to me a few hours after. It 

 took a sprat out of a basin of water, taking the fish crosswise in its beak, but 



