196 COLYMBID/E. 



Zetland seas/'"^ With respect to the nnmier said to have 

 been observed in Belfast Bay, the following is a kind of cor- 

 roborative note : — the season is the singular feature in what has 

 just been stated, but where dates are not remembered even the 

 month may be incorrect. According to a memorandum by the 

 late Mr. John Montgomery, great northern divers were (to use 

 his own words) "very plenty at Dundrum, county Down, in 

 the beginning of January 1822 : I could not have seen less 

 than from fifty to sixty in one day between the outer and inner 

 bays. We killed six, which was thought a wonder, as a person 

 who shoots a good deal here said lie never saw them shot before, 

 but that the fishermen sometimes found them drowned in the 

 nets, in which they got entangled when diving for their prey. 

 They are difficult to kill on account of their diving at the flash 

 of the pan, and even when struck they carry away a great deal of 

 shot. Tliough many shots were fired at them and other birds 

 during the day, they never attempted to take wing, but always 

 dived. They swam under water very fast, and always gained on 

 the boat whether with or against the tide." In a note of 

 January 1823, the same gentleman remarked tliat great northern 

 divers are very plentiful at Dundrum every winter. Two females 

 which he weighed were 9 and 11 lbs. One shot near Cushen- 

 dall in November 1812, was reported as weighing 16 lbs. Notes 

 have been supphed to me of a young male killed in Dubhn 

 Bay, weighing 10 lbs. 2 oz., and an adult obtained at Lambay off 

 that coast 26 lbs. ! Both this species and the red-throated diver 

 vary remarkably in size. 



With respect to Cork harbour, it was stated in March 1850, 

 " The northern divers appeared as usual this winter. In pur- 

 suing them from a boat, when they are once frightened or fired at, 

 it is impossible to get within shot again, they swim so quickly 

 under water. A boat has no chance of coming near.^t 



In Lame Lough, where these birds are little molested, they 



* ' History of British Animals,' p. 133. It is also stated there that the author 

 " observed oue off the coast of Waterford on the 28th of July, 1816." 



t Mr. E. Warren, jun. 



