COLYMBID^. 411 



laudiDg-stage at Lundy. Hardly a winter passes "without one or two 

 immature birds being seen on the liarnstaple river, and occasionally 

 examples approaching the full plumage ha%'e been obtained. These birds 

 ai-e splendid divers ; as they plunge under water at the flash of a gun they 

 are not easily shot, and it is often a very long chase before one is secured. 

 Only the head and a portion of the neck are visible when the bird comes 

 up to breathe, as it is able to keep its body submerged. 



Tlie Rev. Thos. Johnes records a specimen which he saw alive in full plumage at 

 Plviuoulh in the month of July about twelve years before he wrote (1882). It was 

 taken at sea bj' some fishermen, who were carrying it about as a curiusiiy for exhibition 

 (Jiray's ' Tamar and Tavy.' vol. i. p. 354). The same writer says of the ' Great Imber,' 

 the young of this species, that it is often seen on the coast in Whitsand Bay in the 

 summer, and very high up the Tamar in the winter (op, cif.). The Great Northern Diver 

 seldom visits Plymouth Sound, according to Mr. J. Gatcombe, before November, re- 

 maining there until March. On one occasion towards the end of winter he counted 

 between twenty and thirty birds, apparently in pairs, in the Sound (J. G., Zool. 1878, 

 p, 53 ; 1870, p. 112 ; 1882, p. 62). The late Mr. E. Burt states that this Diver usually 

 leaves Torbay in April, or even earlier ; but in 1861 a number returned at the end of 

 May m full breeding-dress, and a ]iair were killed there which are now in the Torquay 

 Museum. Many were seen on the Kingsbridge estuary in November and December 

 185U, and immature birds were unusually numerous on Toi-bay in December 1869 

 (A. -ion H., Zool. 1870, p. 2058; 1874, p. 3908); and at Plymouth in the winters 

 of 1872-3, 1874-5, in December 187(), February 1877, February 1879 (J. G., MS. 

 Notes; and Zool. 1873, pp. 3444, 3445; 1877, pp. 46, 162; 1879, p. 207) ; and on the 

 Taw in ls.57-8 and 1878 (M. A. M., Zool. 1858, p. 6014; 1878, p. 129). Great 

 Northern Divers are numerous in winter in Start Bay off Slapton (W. V. Toll) ; some 

 are occasionally obtained on the Ese estuary ; and examples of this species are not rare 

 oft'Teignmouth. 



Adult specimens occurred at the following dates in addition to those mentioned 

 above :— One on the Exe, May 1829 (E. M., Tran.s. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 334) ; one 

 taken alive in Bigbury Bay, June 1838, in full plumage, and five seen off Rame Head on 

 September 17th, 1832 (J. C. B,, Nat. Hist. S. Devon, p. 214) ; one on the Taw, 

 November 1859 ; one in moult killed by Mr. Gatcombe off Seaton, June 15th, 1861 ; 

 another on the Kiug.sbridge estuary. May 1865, and anotlier in May 1867 (H. N., MS. 

 Note.s) ; one in full plumage May 30th, 1866, off the south coast (Cecil Smith, 'Birds 

 of Somerset,' p. 535) ; an old male in full summer plumage October 30th, 1867, in 

 Plymouth Sound; one November 11th, 1875; another November 27th, 1880 (.J. G., 

 Zool. 1872, p. 2940; 1876, p. 4783; 1881, p. 52); an adult female and two others 

 shot in Torbay, December 2()th, 1872 (J. H. G., Zool. 1873, p. 3493) ; two shot on the 

 Taw near Barnstaple in nearly full summer plumage at the end of November 1880 



(G. F. M., Zool. 1881, p. my 



The recorded occurrences of immature birds are too numerous to 

 mention. 



Mr. E, A. S. Elliot obtained an adult male with traces of summer 

 pluraago which weighed 16 lbs. ; this example has some of the characters 

 of the Arctic form, the White-billed Northern Diver, C. ailanisi, (Jray, 

 but has been determined to belong to the typical Crjlacialishy corai)otent 

 authority. 



The Great Northern Diver is rarely seen off tlio North Somerset coast, 

 where the waters of the Channel are too opa(|ue tor it to fish in ; but there 

 i.s an instance of one in iuituiiture j)lumage having been shot on the 

 ])arrow Waterworks, not far from Bristol, on January 2(>th, 1881, which 

 is said to have weighed lbs. 10| oz, (Zoul. Ibbl, p. U4). Mr. Cecil 



