760 Birds. 



throated diver, the young of which I have repeatedly shot ; and with 

 the various kinds of grebes, excepting the little grebe, which I have 

 never met with in the open sea. I never knew one of them remain 

 under the water longer than about a minute and a half; and I should 

 say forty-five or fifty seconds was the average time of submersion. 



I have much the same account to give of the black goose, wigeon, 

 teal, &c. In the partially submerged state they may continually be 

 seen when " crippled," to use Col. Hawker's word. But it was never 

 my lot to see any of them fully submerged. I have heard of a 

 winged teal having been shot at twenty-one times with a flint gun, 

 before it could be killed : if it had the power of submerging itself, it 

 was a fool to be shot at twice. I have known another winged teal 

 shot at six times with a detonator before it could be secured : if it 

 possessed the power of submergence, it might quietly have dived, 

 and after proceeding twenty-five or thirty yards under water, have 

 silently put its bill only above the surface, and so escaped being shot at 

 all ; for there was wind enough to work a sailing boat, and conse- 

 quently ripple enough to ensure the concealment of the teal. It is 

 worth notice, too, that Col. Hawker, when describing the " cripple 

 chase," or adverting to this stratagem, by which wounded birds seek 

 to escape, does not allude to, or enumerate among them, the power 

 of submergence : and yet, had any of the water-fowl possessed the 

 power in the manner and degree W. H. S. seems to maintain, it could 

 hardly have escaped the notice of so: experienced a sportsman as 

 Col. Hawker. 



I further observe that the testimony of ornithological writers, so 

 far as it goes, favours my hypothesis ; inasmuch as whenever they men- 

 tion that habit of the moorhen and dabchick which leads them to 

 endeavour to avoid danger by submerging themselves, they (the 

 writers) always mention the presence of weeds, &c, among which 

 the submersion takes place. " When disturbed, it (the dabchick) 

 immediately dives, and remains for some time submerged ; and should 

 the cause of its apprehension still continue in sight, after a first 

 survey, it retires to the weeds, where it remains with its body immersed, 

 and with the bill and part of the head only above the water." — Sel- 

 by, 111. ii. 402. " When suddenly surprised in a situation at all 



and from a low boat or punt, little is seen but the head. But when you are near, and 

 in a sailing-vessel of some burden, you see a part of the back as well as the neck 

 and head. 



