544 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



and diving in that thick muddy water must be some- 

 thing like walking in a London fog. 



The food of the Eedthroated Diver consists of 

 fish, on which it feeds rather greedily, as many as 

 sixteen small fish having been seen to fall from 

 the throat of one of these birds, as recorded in 

 the 'Zoologist' for 1864. Mr. Blake-Knox gives 

 rather a curious account of their diving for dabs : 

 these fish generally hiding in the sand on the 

 approach of danger, the Diver turns on his back and 

 ploughs up the sand with his upper mandible to get 

 them : this operation Mr. Knox says he has watched 

 when fishing in clear water, and seen the dabs taken 

 off his own line by the bird. 



The Eedthroated Diver appears to breed in the 

 northern part of Scotland and in the Scotch Islands : 

 it is said to make little or no nest, but places its 

 eggs amongst the stones close to the water so close 

 sometimes that the bird can reach the water with its 

 bill. 



As a subject of the chase this bird almost equals 

 the Northern Diver, but I do not think it quite so 

 difficult to obtain : I think, too, it is rather fonder of 

 flying, which it does well and at a great pace : it 

 occasionally flies by one's boat, and gives a good 

 chance of a shot in that way. 



Various papers in the ' Zoologist ' have, I think, 

 nearly proved that the full plumage of this bird, with 

 its red throat, is only a summer plumage, which it 



