246 BRITISH BIRDS 5 EGGS. 



rising out of gun-shot, diving again almost instantaneously, 

 and joining the male, which was apparently surveying the 

 scene at a few hundred yards' distance/' This writer adds, 

 "When unaccompanied with the young, we have never 

 been able to overtake this bird on the water; it could in- 

 variably beat a couple of good rowers, even though kept 

 almost constantly under water by firing at it, and if ap- 

 proached within a moderate distance, its next rise might 

 probably be many hundred yards astern, having closed and 

 doubled on the way of the boat. On these occasions the 

 bird never attempted to fly." In the north of Europe, 

 Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Scandinavia, this species 

 breeds among the retired lakes; it is also an American 

 species. The eggs are usually two in number, of a browner 

 colour than those of the last species, with grey and blackish- 

 brown spots. 



THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. Colymbus glacialis. In 

 the winter this handsome bird visits our coasts from the 

 North, but we are not aware that it has ever been known to 

 breed either on the British mainland, or on any of the ad- 

 jacent islands. In Iceland it breeds, and upon the Ame- 

 rican continent, in many parts of the United States, arid in 

 Labrador. Dr. Richardson remarks, that though it "is 



