o 
GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
close quarters. A shot with the punt-gun at onee settled the specimen obtained on the Broad in November, 
and a green cartridge from a muzzle-loading 10-hore brought down the second, whose state I could scarcely 
judge at the first glance, while crossing the sounds on wing at a eonsiderable elevation early in Deeember. 
Our encounter with the third may be described l)y the following extract from my notes : — “ Deeember 14. All 
signs of frost vanished. On reaehing the Broad, the surface of the water was as smooth as glass, and soon after 
daybreak we detected a Great Northern Diver on the deep water in the channel near Pleasure Ilills, and, as 
the light increased, ascertained that the stranger was busily engaged in diving for food, though apparently 
meeting with Imt little success, as it was not until we were within seventy or eighty yards that the bird came 
up with a small pike of about twelve or fourteen inches in length. Here we stopped the punt to watch its 
actions, and remarked that the prey was grasped crossways in the beak and assiduously shaken for over five 
minutes, this treatment being doubtless administered with the intention of disabling or killing the fish before it was 
swallowed. At length, as the bird appeared a finer specimen than any previously secured, I fired the big gun 
at the range of about eighty yards, when, after beating the water violently with its wings for a few seconds, it 
dived, speedily reappearing again on the surface, evidently hard struck and uttering the most mournful cries I 
ever heard proceeding from the throat of a bird. Desirous of putting an end to its sufferings as soon as possible, 
I picked up a heavy 10-hore breech-loader, and as the Diver continued swimming towards the boat, discharged 
one barrel at the distance of between forty and fifty yards. Though lying motionless on the surface of the 
water for a moment after receiving the charge, it again flapped towards the punt, which had now turned round, 
and having made its way so close that a second shot must have damaged it as a specimen, the bird was 
allowed to continue its course, till, reaching the stern of our craft it scrambled on to the after-deck and was 
shuffling open-mouthed over the wash-streak into the interior, when it was seized by the neck by the puntman, 
wbo soon put an end to its struggles. The Diver was remarkable for its size, and proved also to be in exceedingly 
good condition, weighing just ov'er 9 lbs. ; the two previously obtained had only turned tbe scales at 8 and 
lbs. The iris was a deep olive-brown, the mandibles white, with the exception of a dark mark down the ridge 
of the upper, extending almost to the point. Inside of mouth a dirty livid white tint ; legs outside black, inside 
white, edges light grey ; toes black ; webs white, with veins of purple tinge showing very conspicuously down 
the centre.” 
During my wnnderings through the Outer Islands of the Hebrides, I again often listened to the monotonous 
wailing notes of this species. An immature bird that was particularly noisy attracted our attention one 
morning in May 1877, on a saltwater loch in the Park district of the Island of Lewis, while we were obtaining 
a shot at an old female White-tailed Eagle. This Diver evidently possessed vocal powers of the highest order, 
for it treated us to a most discordant concert for over half an hour, plunging below the surface occasionally, 
and again on reappearing uttering its mournful cries. 
Eull-plumaged birds are to he seen every spring in the Channel off the coast of Sussex ; they first put in 
an appearance about the middle of April, and are to he met with throughout the greater part of May. Some 
seasons they pass along in immense numbers, all making their way from west to east, bound towards tbeir 
breeding-grounds in the far north ; the wind doubtless accounts for the course followed ; occasionally they 
shelter under our shores and at times are forced to seek smooth water across the Channel. Adults and those in 
various immature stages often travel in company. On tbe 21st of April, 1874, I noticed half a dozen fine mature 
birds intermixed with three or four that exhibited only a mottled or half-and-half state of lilumage, about ten 
miles at sea off Brighton ; a few davs later some Worthing fishermen informed us that thev had met with 
thirteen in one party off Goring about the same dafe, half of which were in full plumage. 
To obtain specimens of these Divers out on the open sea is by no means an easy matter, the birds invariably 
dive (or, it might be more correct to say, submerge themselves so rapidly, and the operation is performed with 
such little exertion, though they certainly go down head foremost, which has been denied) when approached 
