THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 197 



may sometimes iu the calmest days be seen within shot of the 

 shore, far up the estuary, occasionally near its inner extremity. 

 Wild-fowl shooters in Belfast Bay, who have had ample oppor- 

 tunities of observing the great northern diver, dissent from Mr. 

 Dunnes view, as quoted in Yarrell's work {' Brit. Birds,^ vol. iii. 

 p. 430, 2ud ed.). It is there stated that in diving it does not 

 appear "to make the least exertion, but sinks gradually under 

 the surface without throwing itself forward, the head being the last 

 part that disappears.^' They maintain, on the contrary, that it and 

 the red-throated species go under water like any other gently 

 diving birds, as grebes, &c. By throwing themselves forward in 

 the usual manner, the head being first immersed, they disappear 

 cpiite noiselessly — glide, as it were, beneath the surface with the 

 greatest ease, and not with a splash like some of the diving 

 ducks, &c. 



On the 28th of May, 1842, a great northern diver was observed 

 for some time by Mr. G. C. Hyndman and myself, as it swam 

 and dived about very near the village of Glenarm, within shot 

 of the shore. It was an adult bird, the collar round the neck 

 and the markings on the back being apparent. It brought up 

 (caught by the middle) a fish about six inches long, which was 

 turned and swallowed head foremost. We timed the bird's diving 

 twice, and in each instance it was just one minute under water. 

 With our watches ready a third time, we both looked out most 

 attentively for its re-appearance until fifteen minutes had elapsed, 

 but in vain ! Had it come up within a furlong of where it dived, 

 we considered that the bird could not possibly have escaped our 

 notice. I should have thought it was caught in a net had one been 

 near, but was told that none was then set on the coast. What be- 

 came of the bird is a mystery. On the following day we saw one 

 of these divers near the same place, and, apparently, from plumage, 

 the individual that had so befooled us. The driver of the mail-car 

 from Glenarm to Cushendall, looking upon a diver here as a daily 

 acquaintance, remarked, that he knew it well as a frequenter of the 

 place, chiefly in summer, for two years : he had seen a second 

 bird in the locality. Four years previous to this time (early in 



