130 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



that locality so small and young, that I doubt 

 whether it could have arrived there from another 

 country ; but my opinion is that the Great Northern 

 Diver only nests on inland lakes and in spots 

 where it can at once glide into the water in case 

 of danger. Did it lay its eggs on a tidal coast, 

 it might be left fifteen to twenty feet above the 

 water's edge every tide ; or else high and dry on 

 shore, whence it could not quickly escape when 

 necessary, nor could it, except at high water, return 

 to its eggs after feeding. It is the last bird in the 

 world to fly to or from the nest. 



Though it is an unnatural or, at least, a most 

 unusual attitude for this bird to be viewed upright 

 on stone or rock, or on flat bare ooze, it has some- 

 times happened to me to see it in that position.* 

 In Tralee Bay, co. Kerry, I have on several occa- 

 sions observed these birds resting bolt upright with 

 the erectness of a guardsman. An ebb tide in that 

 estuary sometimes leaves dry a vast expanse of slob- 

 land almost simultaneously, this great level surface 

 being intersected by small channels. I have dis- 

 tinctly observed Great Northern Divers entrapped, 

 as it were, evidently loth or incapable of taking 

 wing, and unable to dive or swim in the rapidly 

 shallowing water. They simply remained motionless 

 as the tide left them, and ended by sitting as de- 

 scribed, on the bare ooze. I have walked up to them 

 on perceiving their species through a telescope, and 

 even fired shots, but they seemed totally unable to 



* As before noted, though this diver will not rise off the breast for 

 the purpose of walking, yet I have no doubt it will rest in an upright 

 attitude. 



