THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
199 
its breast wistfully looking at that element in which it was accus- 
tomed and wished to move, but appeared quite incapable of 
transferring itself to it, and, though placed repeatedly upright, it 
always fell down again on its breast. It was only at length eman- 
cipated from this helpless state by being placed close to the edge 
of the water, when, pushing itself along with its wings and feet, it 
got afloat, and joyfully diving, bid us a long adieu. The mode 
in which the toes are jointed with the tarsus prevents their being 
bent forward out of its line ; and the great sharpness, posteriorly, 
of that member, renders it almost impossible for it to walk ; and 
this trial of its powers would seem to indicate that it can only rise 
on its wing from the water. I therefore think it must hatch on 
low islets, from which, without much exertion of its feet, it could 
launch itself.”* 
In October 1840, I was shown, at Florence Court, an adult 
bird of this species, which had been killed by the blow of a stone 
in a mountain rivulet of that neighbourhood, two months after 
the great hurricane of January 1839 ; — the taxidermist remarked 
that there was no indication of its having been previously 
wounded. It was presented by the Hon. John L. Cole to the 
Belfast Museum. On the day after that hurricane, one was shot 
in a dock at Ringsend, Dublin. After a gale in March, 1844, a 
great northern diver was obtained on the river Lagan, above the 
bridges which span it near Belfast. The species apparently some- 
times leaves the coast, by choice, for fresh water, as I have seen a 
fine adult bird, in the highest condition, which was shot on Lough 
Neagh. One has been killed at Ballibrado, near Cahir, Tipperary. 
In May 1830, a pair of these divers, both adult, frequented Lough 
Fea, county Monaghan, where they were observed for some time 
by Robert Evatt, Esq., of Mount Louise. 
From the length of time that this species is in attaining full 
plumage, by far the greater number of birds killed are immature, 
but a fair proportion of adult birds relatively to them, visits the 
coast of Ireland. 
* Loudon’s ‘Magazine of Nat. Hist.’ vol. j. p. 585. 1882. 
