536 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



be expected, as lie can swim under the water quite 

 as quickly as one can row an ordinary sea-boat, and 

 his first dive will perhaps take him two or three 

 hundred yards off, and it is no use then waiting for 

 another dive to get closer while he is below one 

 must keep hard at it and follow him up. Now and 

 then a bird will turn and dive back towards the boat, 

 and perhaps, just as one is giving it up altogether, 

 up he will come close to the boat, giving a fine 

 chance of throwing away a shot, for he is no sooner 

 up than, seeing the boat close to him, down he goes 

 again ; but when a bird takes to dodging like this he 

 gives a better chance than when he goes straight 

 away over the open right a-head : a stern chase is 

 proverbially a long one, and this is no exception to 

 the rule. Perhaps a boat under sail in a good breeze 

 gives a better chance than rowing in a calm, as the 

 boat moves quicker, and one has not got to be 

 always looking over one's shoulder for the bird ; but 

 then the difficulty both of seeing and shooting are 

 increased by the ripple of the water and the motion 

 of the boat, and great care must be taken to keep to 

 windward of him, for if he is once allowed to get to 

 windward it is all over he will swim and dive as 

 fast again as one can beat under sail or row to wind- 

 ward. On the whole, either sailing or rowing, a 

 chase of a Northern Diver is sure to afford a con- 

 siderable amount of excitement and sport nearly, if 

 not quite, equal to a fox hunt, and beating any 



