CHAPTER XXIII 



DIVERS AND GREBES 



THE Great Northern Diver, the prince of divers, 

 is well known on the coast as the Ring-necked 

 Loon, Cobble, Emmer, Sea- Herdsman, Great 

 Speckled Diver, Gunner, and Ember Goose ; it is 

 one of the ocean wanderers. It is not the scarcity 

 of this grand fowl that prevents his being seen very 

 often in taxidermical establishments, but the bird's 

 diving powers and instinct of self-preservation are 

 so great, combined with his immense vitality, that 

 the capture of a whale or a shark is an easy matter 

 in comparison with the circumvention, by any known 

 means, of the death of this great diver in a 

 full-plumaged condition. The young, as described 

 further on, are frequently seen, and can be got 

 at ; I have had some sent to me just lately, fresh 

 from the tide, but they were in their first plumage. 

 Not the most profound scheming of as good a lot of 

 shots as ever tossed on the tide has yet been able to 

 do what some fowling friends of mine have long 

 been trying, namely, to place in my hands a full- 

 plumaged Northern Diver, with the damp salt spray 



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