Birds. 4629 



have since learned to think more of ray luck in killing the bird than of its actual 

 scarcity. There seems, too, an impression current that the divers seldom make use of 

 their wings, but from my own experience, and I have made the genus to a certain ex- 

 tent a special object of study, they do fly quite as much as could be expected in birds 

 of such astonishing subaqueous facilities. They were in the habit of flying in and 

 out of Bembridge Harbour, probably for the sake of food ; and I have constantly, 

 when out sailing, seen them on the wing over-head far out of gun-shot : nay, they have 

 many times trusted to the air, " par preference," whilst I was endeavouring to circum- 

 vent them ; and this was also the constant habit of the horned grebe when we bore 

 down upon him. It may seem unnecessary to allude to the loon's marvellous activity 

 in diving, called as they are after this pre-eminent faculty, still I may safely say that 

 of many shots I have fired at them, and within twenty yards too, I scarcely ever knew 

 one to take effect, even with a percussion gun, unless the bird had the back of its head 

 turned to the flash ; and often when rising close to the boat a sort of spring and a 

 momentary glimpse of its curving back was all I could catch of the hunted bird. 

 Frequently, too, has one of these stately creatures, emerging close at hand, appeared 

 to court a shot, till the result showed one might as well have aimed at a " Will o' the 

 wisp.'' Their mysterious disappearance after a tedious chase is well known, and I 

 should feel inclined rather to side with those who ascribe it to the power they have of 

 using their beak alone for respiration while the body is all concealed, than to the more 

 flattering conclusion of a fatally wounded bird entangling itself in sullen despair 

 among the sea-weed at the bottom. The blackthroated diver is also probably less un- 

 common than is said ; and the great difficulty of obtaining specimens, together with 

 the impossibility of distinguishing the two smaller species until brought to bag, may 

 serve to account for this. Though perhaps seldom procured, about an equal number 

 passed through my hands, in the Isle of Wight, as of the great northern. Two inte- 

 resting questions remain for the solution of some diligent observer: the first, respecting 

 the plumage, as to whether any numbers of adult birds do regularly visit our South 

 coast in winter, as is supposed from the comparatively few young that are reared an- 

 nually ; and it is as well to remember, on this point, how very much heavier are those 

 few which are got in perfect plumage : further observations, too, are much needed on 

 any birds found in the intermediate state, or in whatever condition whilst approaching 

 the adult livery. The second point wanting confirmation is whether the redthroated 

 diver still breeds in the northern isles of Scotland. It is much to be feared that the 

 other truly indigenous species (blackthroated) is too much persecuted by the unscru- 

 pulous avidity of private egg-collectors (who too often spare neither nest nor parents), 

 so as in no small degree to justify the apprehension that this fine bird will soon be 

 numbered with the wild swan, the gray lag, the crane and the bustard, among glories 

 ornithological long since departed, to the regret of every real lover of birds. As to 

 the great northern diver, too, there seems considerable doubt whether it does at the 

 present day nest upon British soil ; and the several unaccountable instances of its oc- 

 currence in the early summer months, as when lately in full plumage it fell to the rifle 

 of a friend on Lough Corrib, Ireland, tend in no small degree to render the solution 

 still more difficult, but it is presumed, for that very reason, the more interesting. — 

 A. G. More ; Trinity College, Cambridge, January, 1855. 



Rare Birds captured near Stoumarket. — During the severe weather from the 16th 

 of January to the 7lh of February, of this year, some rare birds have been taken in 

 XIII. O 



