THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
197 
may sometimes in the calmest days be seen within shot of the 
shore, far up the estuary, occasionally near its inner extremity. 
Wild-fowl shooters in Belfast Bay, who have had ample oppor- 
tunities of observing the great northern diver, dissent from Mr. 
Dunn's view, as quoted in Yarr ell's work ('Brit. Birds,' vol. iii. 
p. 430, 2nd ed.). It is there stated that in diving it does not 
appear "to make the least exertion, but sinks gradually under 
the surface without throwing itself forward, the head being the last 
part that disappears." They maintain, on the contrary, that it and 
the red-throated species go under water like any other gently 
diving birds, as grebes, &c. By throwing themselves forward in 
the usual manner, the head being first immersed, they disappear 
quite noiselessly — glide, as it were, beneath the surface with the 
greatest ease, and not with a splash like some of the diving 
ducks, &c. 
On the 28th of May, 1842, a great northern diver was observed 
for some time by Mr. G. C. Hyndman and myself, as it swam 
and dived about very near the village of Glenarm, within shot 
of the shore. It was an adult bird, the collar round the neck 
and the markings on the back being apparent. It brought op 
(caught by the middle) a fish about six inches long, which was 
turned and swallowed head foremost. We timed the bird's diving 
twice, and in each instance it was just one minute under water. 
With our watches ready a third time, we both looked out most 
attentively for its re-appearance until fifteen minutes had elapsed, 
but in vain ! Had it come up within a furlong of where it dived, 
we considered that the bird could not possibly have escaped our 
notice. I should have thought it was caught in a net had one been 
near, but was told that none was then set on the coast. What be- 
came of the bird is a mystery. On the following day we saw one 
of these divers near the same place, and, apparently, from plumage, 
the individual that had so befooled us. The driver of the mail-car 
from Glenarm to Cushendall, looking upon a diver here as a daily 
acquaintance, remarked, that he knew it well as a frequenter of the 
place, chiefly in summer, for two years : he had seen a second 
bird in the locality. Tour years previous to this time (early in 
