^234 ON THE COLYMBUS IMMER. 



riae to the whimsical notion that it hatches its egg& 

 under its wings. 



I had long thought that the colymbus immer 

 was a migratory bird, and that, therefore, it ne- 

 cessarily must fly ; but being a most perfect diver, 

 that it never had recourse to its wings, unless when 

 some urgent instinct induced it to employ them. 

 Indeed, I had often seen birds which I took to be 

 imber-geese, fly, and nothing but the prevailing 

 belief to the contrary led me to suppose that I 

 might be mistaken. Lately, I had an opportuni- 

 ty of ascertaining the truth of a part of this opi- 

 nion. On the 31st of January 1811, I saw an 

 imber-goose in Bressa Sound, and after a good 

 deal of trouble, I got sufficiently near to fire at, 

 and wound it. Immediately after receiving the 

 shot, it dived, but in a few minutes thereafter, it 

 came to the surface, raised itself with great ease 

 from the water, and flew with rapidity above 

 100 yards from the place from which it rose ; 

 when, exhausted by the loss of blood, it fell, and 

 was soon after laid hold of. When on wing, I 

 observed it to droop the head and tail a little, in 

 the manner that the Colymbus septentrionalis 

 does. I have sent the skin, imperfectly stuflfed, to 

 the Society, and the following is a description of 

 the bird : 



It measured two feet seven inches and a half 

 from the point of the bill to the extremity of the 



