Birds. 4293 



squatters as to the mode in which the female golden eye transports 

 her young from her nest in lofty trees to the water." And again, in 

 speaking of the goosander, " As with the golden eye, the point 

 is much mooted in Sweden regarding the way in which the goos- 

 ander, when it nests in a hollow tree, and often at a height of from 

 twenty to thirty feet, gets its young to the ground, which it is known 

 to do the night after they are hatched. Some imagine that whilst in 

 the nest, the poults get on to her back, after which she slowly creeps 

 out of the cavity, and thus burthened, either descends with out- 

 stretched wings, and half-hovering, as it were, to terra Jlrma, or cau- 

 tiously takes her flight to the nearest water. Others contend, and 

 with a much greater show of reason, that she takes them up in 

 her bill, and in this way carries them to their native element." 



There is but one other method of removing their young which has 

 been observed, and that is peculiar to the grebes, and such-like divers. 

 These, when danger threatens, carefully conceal their young beneath 

 their "wings" and so dive out of sight. Yarrell relates how Mr. 

 Proctor, when in Iceland, shot several Sclavonian grebes, which came 

 up from diving with their young under their wings ; and how the 

 great crested grebe adopts the same precaution, when alarmed. A 

 correspondent in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 1182) affirms that the Utile 

 grebe, or common dabchick, does the same. Hewitson and Stanley- 

 speak of it as the general habit of the Colymbidae : and both those 

 writers state that the inhabitants of the Orkneys, from seeing them 

 take their young under their wings for protection, are fully persuaded 

 that in lieu of making nests like other birds, and sitting on their eggs, 

 the great northern divers carry them about with them under their 

 wings in a hole expressly provided for that purpose, Lloyd says that 

 the same belief is generally entertained in Scandinavia, and quotes 

 the following remarkable passage from Pontoppidan : — " On inquiring- 

 how they (the immers) find place and opportunity to hatch th§ir 

 young, I have been informed they lay but two eggs, which is very 

 likely ; for one never sees more than two young ones with them. 

 Under their wings in their body, there are two pretty deep holes, big 

 enough to put one's fist in ; in each of these they hide an egg, and 

 hatch the young ones there as perfect, and with less trouble, than 

 others do on shore." The good old Bishop evidently believes this 

 account, and tries to link in as a partner in credulity another, whom 

 hej considers " a pretty cautious writer : " though, like Herodotus, he 

 is careful to conclude his most marvellous stories with such words as 

 " relata refevo, sed constanter et a plurimis relata." 



XII. U 



