108 NATURAL HISTORY [Birds. 



GENUS XXrilLTKE DIVER. 



Gen. Char. Bill strong, straight, pointed, upper mandible the longest, edges of 

 each bending inwards ; nostrils linear, the upper part divided by a small cuta- 

 neous appendage ; tongue long and pointed, serrated at each side near the base ; 

 legs very thin and flat ; toes, the exterior the longest, the back toe small, join- 

 ed to the interior by a small membrane ; tail short, consists of twenty feathers. 



Species 1. The Great Northern Diver. 



Wil. Orn. 342. Rail Syn. Av. 125. Colymbus Maximus stellalus nostras, 

 Sib. Scot. 20. tab. 15. C. glacialis, Lin. Sys. 221. Brit, Zool. 413. 



THE Great Northern Diver is very frequent round all the 

 Orkneys, but especially in the bays and harbours, which it 

 enters in pursuit of small fish, its only sustenance. The na- 

 tural history of this and the following species is something pa- 

 radoxical. Though they continue among these islands the 

 whole season, 1 can find none to inform me how or where they 

 breed. It is certain the formation of their legs, and the manner 

 of placing them, does not allow them to walk, nor will teas- 

 ing make them fly, as I have often seen ; indeed, their wings 

 seem too small for this purpose. How then do they propagate 

 and hatch ? To solve this many improbable schemes have 

 been advanced ; some * telling us " they have their nests and 



* The elder Wallace, Hist. Oik. 16. ed. 1693, and from him transmitted to 

 Sir Robert Sibbald. 



