Great Northern Diver. 507 



ployed. The generic name, colymbus, is simply the Latinized 

 form of Ko\u/z/3o9, 'a diver.' The specific, glacialis, 'living 

 amongst the ice/ marks it at once as an inhabitant of Arctic 

 regions ; and the Swedish Is Lorn and the German Eis Taucher, 

 ' Ice Diver/ are a close translation of Colymbus glacialis. Pro- 

 vincially, on some parts of our coast it is called the ' Great 

 Doucker/ which is clearly the same as the German Taucher. It 

 is also known to fishermen as the ' Immer/ or ' Ember Goose/ 

 and also as the ' Herdsman of the Sea/ from its habit of driving 

 before it the fishes which it pursues, even to a very great depth. 

 In France it is Plongeon Imbrim ; in Germany, Schwarzhalsiger 

 Seetaucher, ' Black-necked Sea-Diver ' ; in Italy, Mergo Maggiore. 

 Though all the three species of Divers occur sparingly on our 

 coasts, and from each we have had one or more visits in Wilt- 

 shire, the Great Northern Diver is that most frequently found 

 inland ; and of its occurrence in this county I have no less than 

 ten instances. Lord Arundell informed me that one was killed 

 at Wardour about ten years ago ; Lord Methuen possesses a 

 specimen which was killed on the water at Corsham Court; 

 Lord Bath tells me that one, if not two, have been taken at 

 Longleat ; Lord Nelson has one killed at Trafalgar ; Mr. Grant 

 reports one killed at Whitley in December, 1869, by falling on 

 the ice on a Sunday in the midst of a number of people. The 

 late Rev. G. Marsh had an immature specimen in his collection, 

 shot by his brother in the river at Salisbury in 1831 ; and also an 

 adult specimen, killed on the borders of the county near Bath, 

 in February, 1838. Holliday, a bird-stuffer at Calne, informed 

 me that he had preserved one which was shot at Bowood in 

 1855. A very fine specimen was taken in a brook leading from 

 Spye Park to Chittoe in November, 1853, and came into the pos- 

 session of Captain Meredith, the particulars of whose capture I 

 recorded in the Zoologist at that time ;* and another was killed 

 on Major Heneage's water at Lyneham, and is now preserved in 

 the hall at Compton Bassett House. 



Zoologist for 1854, p. 4166. 



