534 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



flanks and under tail- coverts dusky, muddled with 

 white. Another of my specimens is much paler all 

 over, and has little or no olive mixed with the 

 brown : this is a much younger bird probably a 

 bird of the year. 



Yarrell says the eggs when first laid are perfectly 

 white, but soon become stained with greenish yellow 

 and brown from being in contact with decaying 

 vegetable matter and soil from the feet of the bird : 

 two in my collection are yellowish brown, and do not 

 look as if they had ever been quite white. 



GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, Colymbus glacialis. 

 The Great Northern Diver is by no means a com- 

 mon visitor to this county, either to the shores or 

 the inland waters : on the shore, indeed, I have 

 never seen or heard of a specimen, but one or two 

 immature birds have occurred in the inland ponds 

 at Chargot ; some of these were preserved, and are, 

 I believe, still at Sandhill Park : one specimen, a 

 mature bird changing to winter plumage, was shot 

 on the river at Ninehead, and is still in the collection 

 of Mr. Sanford. As far as the coast line is con- 

 cerned, all the Divers probably stop short with the 

 muddy water, which generally reaches a little below 

 Minehead ; so they may occasionally come up as far 

 as Porlock Bay, as I know they are not uncommon in 

 immature plumage a little lower down the coast at 

 Ilfracombe. The bird has also made its appearance 

 on a pond in the neighbouring, but still more inland, 



