THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 129 



mood, caused perhaps by the pleasant weather, you 

 may often obtain a good chance, if care be taken to 

 make the first shot the surest. Once alarmed they 

 present, as is the habit with all diving birds except 

 Goldeneyes, only the head and outline of the back 

 as a target, and swim so low and buried, that they 

 afford a very insignificant mark to aim at. The 

 chances are, if not killed outright, or badly disabled 

 at the first shot, you are led a wearisome chase, and 

 finally left empty-handed, after much powder has 

 been expended in vain. They are, however, well 

 worth a little trouble, for if not in sufficiently good 

 plumage to please a collector, the large white breast 

 makes the perfection of a fowling-cap, and three 

 such skins an excellent waistcoat. Impenetrable to 

 wet, tough as leather and warm, the plumage is of a 

 most suitable kind and colour for a fowler. 



A bird of this description, caught in a trammel net, 

 I kept alive in a pond for some weeks ; though the 

 wings were perfect, it made no effort to fly away, and 

 could scarce break the fall when lifted some yards 

 and dropped into the water. When diving for fish, 

 which he freely took the day after being caught, I 

 noticed the wings were used in propulsion about 

 half extended, but not invariably so. One morning 

 a cat, that had come off second best in a nocturnal 

 assault, was found dead on the bank, with a pierced 

 skull. The beak had entered the eye, and what the 

 marauder might have judged an easy prey proved a 

 veritable tartar. 



The Great Northern Diver has been supposed to 

 breed on the western shore of Erris, and the neigh- 

 bouring islands. I have known one to be shot in 



K 



