BIRDS IN GENERAL 413 



known by the name of the hen-harrier, but escaped into 

 some covert. He then sprung a second, and a third, in 

 the same field, that got away in the same manner ; the 

 hawk hovering round him all the while that he was beating 

 the field, conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in 

 the stubble. Hence we may conclude that this bird of 

 prey was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and 

 that hawks cannot always seize their game when they 

 please. We may farther observe, that they cannot pounce 

 their quarry on the ground, where it might be able to 

 make a stout resistance, since so large a fowl as a pheasant 

 could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a hawk, 

 when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of 

 cowring and squatting till they are almost trod on, which 

 no doubt was intended as a mode of security: though long 

 rendered destructive to the whole race of gaUinae by the 

 invention of nets and guns. 



GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON 



As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest 

 from Bramshot across the moors, he found a large un- 

 common bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, 

 which he brought home alive. On examination it proved 

 to be colymbus glacialis Linn, the great speckled diver or 

 loon, which is most excellently described in Willughby's 

 Ornithology. 



Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably 

 adapted to this mode of life, that in no instance do we see 

 the wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. 

 The head is sharp and smaller than the part of the neck 

 adjoining, in order that it may pierce the water ; the wings 

 are placed forward and out of the centre of gravity for a 

 purpose which shall be noticed hereafter ; the thighs quite 

 at the podex, in order to facilitate diving ; and the legs 

 are flat, and as sharp backwards almost as the edge of a 

 knife, that in striking they may easily cut the water : 

 while the feet are palmated, and broad for swimming, yet 



