GREAT NORTHEllN DIVER. 
3 
within about one hundred yards, and though the surface of the water may be as smooth as glass, no signs of their 
whereabouts, not even the slightest ripple, can he detected till, when all is quiet and the boat moved off, they 
again show themselves at the distance of about half a mile. Occasionally I have noticed a few immature birds 
of this species during the winter months while gunning off the coasts of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire ; the 
last recorded in my notes is under the date of December 29th, 1883, when one was observed off Lancing, several 
Eiders and immense numbers of Scoters, both Velvet and Common, being on the water tlie same day. 
AVhile staying at Loch Inver, on the west of Sutherland, during the summer of 1877, I ascertained that 
Great Northern Divers in full plumage were often seen on many of the lochs along the coast, and that they 
evinced a strong partiality for Loch Roe, a small sheet of water shut in by high rocks and entered by a narrow 
channel, where, if necessary, a shot might almost Avith certainty be obtained at a bird attempting to escape 
towards the open sea. On the 7th of June, the weather being too rough to fish or put to sea in quest of 
specimens, I started Avith a gillie Avho Avas Avell acquainted Avith the haunts of the birds, to drive to the loch in a 
rickety old dogcart, designated a “ machine ” by the natives. Though I soon discovered our visit Avas made too 
late, the Divers having left for the season, and only a few Razorbills and one or tAVO Red-throated Diveis AA^ere 
seen on the water, I was amply repaid by the drive through such a wild and primitive country. Before reaching 
our destination we Avere obliged to leave the conveyance, as the rough track became too narroAV for even that 
small and humble vehicle. The gillie assured me that the road, AAdiich was merely a slight excavation in the 
hill-side with a few of the larger blocks of stone rolled down, had been greatly improved upon during the past 
feAV months, and that prcA'ious to the alterations he himself considered it had been “ very ill-looking. Neither 
windows nor chimneys, I remarked, Avere to be seen in the few shealings we passed, and the peat-smoke was 
forced to find an outlet by means of the cracks and crcAUces in the dry stone Avails or through the doors . The 
carts made use of by the natives AA^ere small and roughly put together, somewhat resembling the tiawl and 
“barrow-carts ” employed by fish-dealers and tradespeople at Yarmouth, which are fashioned to penetrate the 
narroAV passages termed the “ row s.” 
While engaged in obtaining a pair of Herons required as specimens along the face of the Cromarty rocks, 
in May 18G9, one of them shot from the summit of a portion of tlie cliffs knowm as the Cairn Rhui, fell 
disabled tow'ards the water, and dropped on the back of a Great Northern Diver swimming slowly toAvards the 
east, a short distance from the shore. The Diver evidently resented the injury, striking savagely two or three 
times at the cripple before ducking doAvn beloAV the surface ; after a short absence he seemed disinclined to 
leave the spot entirely, reappearing again Avithin the distance of sixty or seventy yards, and remaining on the 
Avatch till put on the alert by the approach of a salmon-coble sent out from the fishing-station at Shandwick 
to pick up the Avounded Heron. 
* Such dwellings are referred to under the heading of the White-tailed Eagle, p. 4. 
