506 Colymbidce. 



(C. arcticus), or the 'Red-throated' (C. septentrionalis), swim- 

 ming in the midst of some salt-water fjord or fresh-water inland 

 lake, monarchs of all they surveyed, for I never recollect meeting 

 with two pairs on the same water. They are all wild, shy birds, 

 and extremely difficult to shoot, from the facility with which 

 they would dive, the distance they would traverse before they 

 rose again to the surface, and their instantaneous disappearance 

 again beneath the water when alarmed ; and I have spent hours 

 in chasing them in a boat before I could secure the specimens I 

 wanted. 



In diving, indeed, it is most expert, and its progress at the 

 bottom is said to be at the rate of more than seven miles an 

 hour, while it continues its submarine hunting with apparently 

 little exertion. In swimming, its flattened body is often immersed 

 deep in the water, the head and neck only appearing above the 

 surface ; at other times it will swim as high as a duck, and float 

 as buoyant as a cork. But on land it presents a very sorry 

 figure, with little more means of walking than a seal has : for 

 the construction and position of its legs combine to render it 

 incapable of moving on its feet like other birds. Accordingly, 

 venire d terre, it shoves itself forward on its breast by jerks and 

 by striking the ground with its feet. So averse is it to leave the 

 water, and so reluctant to fly, that it will swim and dive for hours 

 when hotly pursued ; but when once it does take wing its flight 

 is swift and, for so heavy a bird, wonderfully powerful Its cries, 

 as you listen to it on a still night in Norway, uttered with loud 

 voice from the midst of some fjord, are most plaintive and 

 melancholy ; and many in consequence are the idle superstitions 

 and fearful tales connected with this bird, thoroughly believed 

 in by the credulous Norsemen, and gravely detailed by the 

 marvel-loving, quaint old Bishop, Pontoppidan.* Its plumage is 

 so thick and close and impervious to wet, and, moreover, its skin 

 is so tough and strong, that it is much prized by the natives of 

 Northern Europe for making into warm articles of clothing. 

 Among the Laplanders more especially I have seen it so em- 

 * Lloyd's ' Scandinavian Adventures,' vol. ii., 487. 



