510 Colymbidce. 



perpetually pouring their waters into it on every side, and 

 especially at the extreme end of every arm, these fresh waters have 

 in some parts so great power over the sea water that the fjords at 

 their heads, though true branches of the sea, have but little taste 

 of salt in their waves : and here the Red-throated Diver retires 

 to breed ; and whether sailing about on the waters they have 

 appropriated to themselves, or flying high in the air with long 

 necks outstretched, and with a wailing scream, they never failed 

 to impart additional interest to the scene. In Norway it is Smd 

 Lorn, or ' Little Lorn,' being somewhat smaller than the Black- 

 Throated. Mr. Cecil Smith says that in Devonshire it is known 

 as the 'Loon,' which is evidently the same as the Norsk Lorn 

 and the Lapland Lumme, which is said to mean ' lame,' in 

 reference to its hobbling mode of progression on land. Some- 

 times it is called the ' Speckled Diver ' and sometimes the ' Rain 

 Goose/ as it is apt to utter hoarse cries before rough weather. 

 Elsewhere it is known to the fishermen as the ' Sprat Loon,' from 

 the partiality it shows for that fish ; but in Finmark, in con- 

 sequence of its harsh and disagreeable cry, it is called in derision 

 ' Lofodden's Nightingale.' Of its amazing powers, both of diving 

 and swimming, and, I may add, of flying, I can speak by ex- 

 perience, having spent many hours in chasing it in a boat manned 

 by sturdy Norwegian boatmen before I could secure the speci- 

 mens I desired to add to my collection. It comes to the British 

 coast oftener than either of its congeners, and may at any season 

 and age be readily distinguished from them by the slightly up- 

 turned bill. In France it is Plongeon Cat-marm oil d gorge 

 rouge; and in Germany, Rotkkehliger Tawher. 



ALCAD.E (THE AUKS). 



This family comprises the Guillemots, the true Auks, and the 

 Puffins, and it is strange that I am able to record any member 

 of the family as a visitor, however rare, to Wiltshire, so seldom 

 do they straggle so far from the coast, and so thoroughly 

 maritime a race all the members of Alcadse are. Indeed, so 

 entirely marine are their habits, that they pass almost all their 



