Birds. 759 



submergence.* To both these modes of escape from danger or alarm, 

 they of course perpetually resorted. I have pursued the great north- 

 ern diver by the half hour together : myself and a friend being armed 

 with heavy wild-fowl guns, with which we alternately peppered him 

 as he emerged from his dive. At each shot, and indeed much oftener — 

 for it repeatedly happened, that from the time lost in tacking, or some 

 other cause, we were not able to salute him immediately on his re- 

 appearance, and he consequently went down again at his convenience; 

 he dived again, but never remained under more than a few seconds 

 (certainly less than two minutes, Yarr. iii. 330) at a time, and never 

 came up near the place at which he had gone down : yet he was 

 wounded in the neck at the very first shot, and had ample reason, 

 and plenty of opportunity, to have saved himself by submergence if 

 he had had the power.f The case is just the same with the red- 



* It should be observed that the instance of the wild duck given by W. H. S. 

 affords an example of only partial submergence ; " the head and a small portion of 

 the upper part of the body" are left " visible above the surface" (Zool. 668), and the 

 same remark is to be made of the subsequent reference (Id.) to " a teal, wigeon, or 

 any other kind of wild-fowl, which has been winged and has dived ;" the " head only" 

 is raised above the surface. And yet, that the wild duck, which is, I presume, a 

 " kind of wild-fowl,'' should, during a " period of cautious concealment," leave a 

 small portion of the upper part of its body, as well as its head and neck, visible 

 above the surface, although so well able to hide all but its head (for " they remain a 

 long time so submerged,'' Id.) appears to me rather a singular circumstance. 



f " I have pursued this bird (the great northern diver) in a Newhaven fishing-boat, 

 with four sturdy rowers, and notwithstanding it was kept almost constantly under 

 water by firing as soon as it appeared, the boat could not succeed in making one yard 

 upon it'' (Yarr. Birds, iii. 324). " It dives with the utmost facility, can remain 

 a long time under water, and rises again at a great distance," (Id. 324). No state of 

 submergence here, surely : and yet, from its swimming so deep in the water, it would 

 be easier to it (and its congeners) than to most other birds. In the same work, a few 

 pages further on, is a quotation from Mr. Selby, on the habits of the black-throated 

 diver, which is too long to extract, but proves almost conclusively that that bird has 

 not more than the power of partial submergence, although possessed of an astonishing 

 capability of diving. Though the old birds mentioned in the quotation were pre- 

 vented by parental affection from making their own escape by diving, and so leaving 

 their young to their fate, there was nothing to prevent both young and old from sub- 

 merging themselves if they could : and note the young moorhens and dabchicks both can 

 and do, as well as the old ones ; but they did not. And further, it is surely reasonable to 

 suppose that they would partially submerge themselves as far as they could ; but the 

 " neck and head" were exposed to shot, and the whole body " nearly submerged," 

 (Id. 331). And this, I will observe here, is the condition in which "winged wild-fowl 

 who have dived" are most commonly seen according to my experience, and not with 

 the head only above the surface : although I acknowledge that at some little distance, 



