THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
279 
the small sheltered bays, [and in pursuit of these it is said to he 
in the habit of ploughing up the sand with its hill, the worn 
appearance of the hill at the point, and the turbid state of the 
water when feeding is going on, seeming to warrant this sup- 
position. Very slight movements of the sand would he enough 
to disturb the fish, and no deep insertion of the bill would be 
necessary ; therefore the feathers at the base would scarcely be 
injured, as Mr Blake Knox suggests. That gentleman, in his 
excellent account of the Colymhi, states from his own observa- 
tion that the Northern Diver turns upon its back to catch flat- 
fish, thrusting the upper mandible beneath them. This of course 
would be one means among others of wearing away the point 
of the bill. 
Its usual note bears considerable resemblance to the barking 
of a small dog; but upon a calm summer’s evening I have 
heard it utter a long-drawn plaintive cry so strangely unlike any 
other known to me that I cannot even attempt to describe it. 
Upon the long-disputed subject of the capability of the Divers to 
sit erect, most observers confidently assert that they have seen it 
in that attitude. My own repeated disappointments have con- 
vinced me at least that a cormorant having the under parts 
white has invariably been the cause of such impression.* 
There now appears to be substantial ground for the supposi- 
tion that the Great Northern Diver occasionally breeds in 
Shetland. Some fifteen years ago I was much struck by the 
large size of a Diver’s egg which was sent to me among other 
species from the island of Yell, and soon afterwards, upon my 
visiting the locality from which it was said to have been 
obtained, I saw a Northern Diver in the loch in perfect summer 
plumage. Although I made the most careful search the next 
year, neither egg nor bird was found ; but the following year, 
early in July, two more eggs were sent to me, and the man 
who found them convinced me, by his very accurate description 
* This was written in 1873, as the result of the author’s matured observation. 
In the note-hook for 1861 he states his belief that the upright position is pos- 
sible, and is occasionally resorted to. — E d. 
