242 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



April 16th. — S.W., rain. Saw a small flock of Wbeatears, 

 three males and three females. 



April 19th. — S., heavy showers. Chiffchaff heard, and Willow 

 Wren seen ; a great many Wheatears on passage. 



April 24th. — N., cold rain. First Eed start; a female and two 

 male Wheatears, all three on a whitethorn hedge. Observed a beau- 

 tiful variety of the Blackbird, the body rich bronze ; wings, except 

 the primaries, which were of the normal colour, a pale silver-grey. 



April 26th. — N., very cold. Drove to Croxby Pond, attracted 

 by a report that a strange bird — " a large fish-eating Diver" — had 

 frequented the place since the last week in March. Cautiously 

 approaching from the north side, through the wood, I got out my 

 telescope at the last tree, and proceeded to sweep the water. In 

 the near foreground, amongst dead and broken reeds, was a cock 

 and hen Teal, then a glossy green- headed Mallard and his mate, 

 and beyond these a female Shoveller. Near to the centre of the 

 water was the object of the quest — a Great Northern Diver, in the 

 autumn plumage, the upper parts greyish black, with indistinct ash- 

 coloured markings ; throat, front of neck, and other under parts 

 visible, white, with a few dark streaks on the posterior half of the 

 flank. This fine bird was swimming majestically to and fro, 

 sometimes carrying its head for some seconds beneath the water. 

 As long as I was concealed it swam rather high, but on advancing 

 into the open, imperceptibly sank itself, like a torpedo-boat, till 

 little but the dark upper parts were visible. The keeper said he 

 had seen it catch fish, and mournfully expressed regret that the 

 bird's extreme cunning and wariness had thus far baffled him in 

 becoming its executioner. The sea is clearly visible from the 

 hills above Croxby, and no doubt it had been driven in during 

 one of those miniature blizzards from the north-east with much 

 driving snow late in March ; lashed with salt spray and blind with 

 the stinging hail, it rose and flew landward, rising higher and 

 still higher as swept forward before the resistless blast, outpacing 

 its own tremendous swiftness ; and then, as the storm slackens, 

 it stoops again to the wood-girdled mirror in the lonely hills, — 

 the only dark space visible in the vast solitude of the snow-chid 

 wold, — and there, despite the keeper and his gun, to find for 

 many a day to come, a haven of security and quiet rest. I am 

 pleased to add that, of its own free will, this our interesting 

 visitor has now disappeared altogether from the pond. I saw a 

 considerable number of Teal on the water, or flying restlessly 



