The Great Northern Diver. lG ? 



that a very young specimen had just been brought in alive by a small steamer 

 which then served the northern islands. 



The Great Northern Diver is a western species. It breeds in Iceland, but is 

 only a visitor to the Faeroes, and a sojourner from autumn to spring on the shores 

 of Norway, although it is suspected that it may breed in that country. It is only 

 an occasional visitor to the Baltic. The Austro-Hungarian expedition, in 1882, 

 found it on Jan Mayen Island, and the recorder thought it might be correctly 

 assumed to breed there ("Zoologist," 1890, p. 15); but Mr. H. Saunders thinks 

 the bird found on this island, as well as in Novaya Zemlya and Arctic Russia, 

 and observed off Spitsbergen, is probably C. adamsi. But the present species 

 breeds in Greenland, and across North America, from the Northern States 

 northward. 



It migrates southward in winter as far as the Gulf of Mexico, and in Europe 

 down to the Mediterranean, where, however, it is uncommon. It is occasionally 

 seen in the Straits of Gibraltar in winter, but gets rarer further east; on the 

 Italian coast, according to Professor Giglioli, it is the scarcest of the three Divers; 

 but an adult female in full nuptial plumage, shot on the 19th June, 1878, near 

 Spezia, is in the Florence Museum. It occurs occasionally at Heligoland in late 

 autumn and winter, but rarely in breeding dress. This species seems to leave its 

 breeding haunts quite early. 



The food of this and the other species of Divers consist of fish. The dilatable 

 nature of the gullet of these birds enables them to stretch a point with impunity 

 when it is desirable to swallow an extra large fish ; but it seems that they even 

 sometimes overtax their powers. In the "Zoologist" for 1894 (p. 265), an instance 

 is recorded of a Great Northern Diver being picked up dead, having been choked 

 by a grey gurnard (Trigla gurnardus). In this case it was suggested that the 

 long humeral and opercular spines, and the strong and rough dorsal fin-rays, 

 caused the fatality. Montagu mentions that sprats, smelts, atherines and spotted 

 gobies are eaten ; and these birds have been known to swallow trout. 



Saxby states that when diving this bird merely gives a slight start and 

 disappears in an instant. When pursued or alarmed the Diver sinks its body very 

 low in the water until only its head and neck are visible, and if hard pressed 

 goes under altogether. The power possessed by Divers of sinking their lighter 

 bodies in the relatively heavier water, and proceeding, either partly or entirely 

 submerged, at a great pace, is difficult to explain.* The strength of this large 

 Diver is enormous ; a slightly wounded bird, made fast by a cord tied to one of 



* This movement is distinct from the ordinary act of diving into the depths of the water, in search of 

 food for instance, which is performed with the aid of the powerful webbed feet. — O.V.A. 



