56 Poachers and Poaching. 



It has been computed that a red-throated diver 

 swims about four and a half miles on the surface 

 of the water, and between six and seven beneath 

 the surface per hour. Macgillivray states that upon 

 one occasion he watched a flock of red-breasted 

 mergansers pursuing sand eels, when the birds 

 seemed to move under the water with almost as 

 much velocity as in the air, and often rose to 

 breathe at a distance of two hundred yards from 

 the spot at which they had dived. To show to 

 what depth this bird flies beneath the water it 

 may be mentioned that one was caught in a net 

 at thirty fathoms ; while a shag, or green cor- 

 morant, has been caught in a crab pot fixed at 

 twenty fathoms below the surface ; and guille- 

 mots literally fly under water without even using 

 their feet. As bearing directly on the interesting 

 subject of flight under water the case of another 

 of the divers may be mentioned. It has been 

 said that one of the strong and original strokes 

 of nature was when she made the "loon," a bird 

 which represents the wildness and solitariness of 

 the wildest and most solitary spots. It dives 

 with such marvellous quickness that the shot of 

 the gunner gets there just in time to cut across 

 a circle of descending tail feathers and a couple 

 of little jets of water flung upward by the 

 web feet of the loon. Speaking of this bird 

 Burroughs says that in the water "its wings are 

 more than wings. It plunges into this denser 



