BIRD-LIFE AT SEA. 



Northern Diver on the shore ; and mentioning 

 this brings to mind a controversy we read some- 

 where in a recent periodical (and again in 

 the Ibis for 1898) as to the attitude assumed 

 by these birds when on the land. If we re- 

 member rightly, some writers asserted that the 

 bird was never seen in an erect attitude, like a 

 Guillemot or a Cormorant, but always recumbent 

 with its underparts touching the ground. But, 

 singularly enough, the only Great Northern Diver 

 that we ever saw ashore in this district was 

 standing bolt upright on the rocks. We watched 

 it a bird in immature plumage apparently for 

 quite half-an-hour, part of the time through a 

 glass, as it so stood upon a weed-draped rock 

 within a few inches of the sea, on the coast near 

 Saltern Cove. We could easily have stalked and 

 shot it in this attitude, for it remained in the 

 same position motionless, except an occasional 

 turn of the head, but we left it as we found it, 

 unscathed and undisturbed. We should not have 

 attached any particular importance to the attitude 

 of this Diver, but it was the only example of 

 these birds that we had seen on shore in the 

 locality, and were thus impressed by the circum- 



