296 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. As one of my neigh- 

 bours was traversing Wolmer Forest, from Bramshot across 

 the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering in the 

 heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On 

 examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis, Linn, the great 

 speckled diver, or loon, which is most excellently described in 

 Willughby's Ornithology.* 



Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably 

 adapted to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the 

 wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. The head 



closely pursued by a small hawk^ we all three fired at the woodcock 

 instead of the hawk, which, notwithstanding the report of three guns 

 close by it, continued its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and 

 carried it off, as we afterwards discovered. 



At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, we saw a 

 ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws ; though 

 at a great distance we both fired, and obliged it to drop its prey, which 

 proved to be one of the partridges we were in pursuit of. And lastly, in 

 un evening, I shot at, and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, 

 but, it being late, was obliged to go home without finding it again. The 

 next morning, I walked round my land without any gun ; but a favourite 

 old spaniel followed my heels. When I came near the field where I wounded 

 the bird the evening before, I heard the partridges call, and they seemed 

 to be much disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, they all rose, 

 some on my right and some on my left hand ; and just before and over 

 my head, I perceived (though indistinctly, from the extreme velocity of 

 their motion) two birds fly directly against each other, when instantly, to 

 my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge at my feet : the dog 

 immediately seized it, and, on examination, I found the blood flow very 

 fast from a fresh wound in the head, but there were some dry clotted blood 

 on its wings and side ; whence I concluded, that a hawk had singled 

 out my wounded bird as the object of its prey, and had struck it down 

 the instant that my approach had obliged the birds to rise on the wing ; 

 but the space between the hedges was so small, and the motion of the 

 birds so instantaneous and quick, that. I could not distinctly observe the 

 operation. MARKWICK. 



* Montagu, in his Ornithological Dictionary, relates that " A northern 

 diver, taken alive, was kept in a pond for some months, which gave us an 

 opportunity of attending to its manners. In a few days it became 

 extremely docile, would come at the call, from one side of the pond to the 

 other, and would take food from the hand. The bird had received an 

 injury in the head, which had deprived one eye of its sight, and the other 

 was a little impaired ; but, notwithstanding, it could, by incessantly 

 diving, discover all the fish that WOP thrown into the pond. In defect ot 

 fish it would eat flesh. 



" It is observable that the legs of this bird are so constructed and situated, 

 as to render it incapable of walking upon them. This is probably the 

 rase with all the divers, as well as tl.e grebes." En. 



