488 THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



each of these they hide an egg, and hatch the young ones 

 there as perfect, and with less trouble, than others do on 

 shore. Relata refero, sed constant er et a plurimis relata. 

 Herr Lucas Debes, whom I consider as a pretty cautious 

 writer, does not look upon this to be improbable." 



Though Swedish naturalists think it more than likely that 

 the northern diver breeds in the peninsula, the fact does 

 not seem to be ascertained. Its eggs are two in number, 

 oblong in form, olive- brown in colour, and marked with 

 brown spots. One of them often proves infecund. 



The Black-throated Diver (Stor-Lom, or Great-Lorn, 

 Sw. ; C. arcticus, Linn.) was common with us, as well as 

 on the neighbouring coast. With the exception of Scania, 

 where it is only found during the winter time, it is also 

 common throughout the whole of Scandinavia much more 

 so, however, as it would seem, in the interior than on the 

 coast. Indeed, there is hardly a lake of any . magnitude, 

 even in the wilds of the forest, that is not, in the summer, 

 tenanted by a pair or two of these birds. It is occasionally 

 seen in Denmark during the winter time, but would not 

 appear to breed there. Although its specific name would 

 denote it to belong more especially to the Arctic regions, it 

 is, we are informed by Kjaerbolling, neither found in Iceland 

 nor in Greenland. 



From the very ungainly step of these and other divers 

 when on dry land, the peasants have the somewhat irreverend 

 saying, that when first created, its legs were forgotten, but 

 subsequently thrown after it. This, in their eyes, accounts 

 for its pedestals being placed so singularly far behind ! 



" They walk excessively slow, and with difficulty,' 1 says 

 Pontoppidan, " because their legs stand so far backwards, 



