194 COLYMBIDiE. 



THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 

 Imber Diver. 



Colymhis glaciaUs, Linn. 



Is a regular winter visitant to the coast, remaining from 

 five to six months, and is occasionally met with in 

 summer. 



The earliest note before^rae of its seasonal visit to Belfast 

 Bay appears under October 21, 183-1, when I saw one which 

 had been captured a few days before in the net of a Carrick- 

 fergus fisherman. This bird had previously a narrow escape from 

 his " long lines/' as a hook was in its mouth when taken, proving 

 that it had been making free with some fish-bait. Had this diver 

 escaped hook and net, neither of which was intended for its 

 capture, it would have attained fidl plumage the following spring.^ 

 As these birds sometimes occur throughout the summer, the latest 

 period of their stay in spring, or time of departure northward, 

 cannot be stated; but on the 26th of April, 1831, an individual 

 in fine adult plumage AViis killed in the bay already named : its 

 " weight was 12 lbs. ; length 3 feet ; eyes hazel." On the 26th of 

 May, ] 810, a specimen in full plumage, captured on one of the 

 banks in that bay, was brought on sale to Belfast ; — on the 7th 

 of May, 1811, an immature male was shot there. Two were 

 seen, about a mile apart from each other, on the sea off Donaglia- 

 dee, on the 5th of May, 1846. On the 21st of April, 1847, 

 two pair were observed, the one about the Copeland Islands, the 

 other off Bangor ; — they were all immature. Several other 

 Colijmbi, seen on that day but not very near, were beheved to be 

 of this species. Nine appeared in a flock near Carrickfergus, on 

 the 2nd of May, 1849, and admitted of a sufficiently near ap- 

 proach for two of them to be wounded by a large shoulder- gun : 



* See notice of the depth at which this species has been taken iu nets, under 

 Gauuet. 



