GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 267 



of this species in the " narrows " of Blakeney harbour. 

 Mr. Dowell says that in the winter of 1846, he watched 

 a young northern diver during the process of swallowing 

 a flounder the size of a man's hand, which it took some 

 minutes to accomplish. That the bird did not resort to 

 the pecking process to enable it to "roll it up into a 

 cylinder/* as asserted to be the custom in the " Zoolo- 

 gist" for 1847 (p. 1907), was proved by the fish which 

 was cast up by the bird after being shot, remaining whole 

 and uninjured. Mr. Dowell states that he never observed 

 this species to dive, in the manner so often ascribed 

 to it, by gradual submersion, the head being the last to 

 disappear, but that, like all other divers, it goes down 

 head foremost, showing the tail last. 



Professor Newton, referring to the mode in which 

 this and other species of diving birds submerge them- 

 selves, remarks, in a letter to the writer, that, so far as 

 his observation goes, " divers, when fishing, go under 

 water in much the same fashion as other birds, with a 

 more or less decided plunge head foremost, but when 

 striving to escape pursuit they seem to have the knack of 

 submerging the body, leaving the head alone above the 

 surface ; this is, at the critical moment, dipt, and the 

 bird disappears. It does not seem to me that this 

 difference, which obtains not only in the divers proper, 

 but also in other diving birds razor-bills, guillemots, 

 grebes, and ducks, has always been recognised." 



At the present time Mr. Monement tells me the great 

 northern diver is occasionally met with at Blakeney, but 

 he has never shot a mature specimen. 



The great estuary of the Wash seems to be a 

 favourite winter resort for the various species of divers ; 

 here among the many channels of deep water inter- 

 secting the numerous sandbanks, they find an abundant 

 supply of food in the shoals of sprats and other fish which 

 frequent the sheltered waters, and if, under stress of 

 weather, they are compelled to enter the rivers the same 

 abundance still awaits them in the shape of eels, flounders, 

 and other fish frequenting the mouths of the tidal waters, 

 while still further inland the numerous lakes and broads 

 teem with fresh water fish which form an easy prey. 



The following remarks on the plumage of this species 

 2 L 2 



