204 
COLYMBID/E. 
month in 1849.* On the 21st of April, 1847, several (immature), 
and on the 3rd of May in the preceding year, three birds tvere 
observed in Belfast Bay. At Glengariff, Bantry Bay, they remain 
until April, at the end of which month, three or four with red 
throats were shot in 1849.t 
On April 16th, 1832, a living bird, which had been wounded 
on that or the preceding day, at Garmoyle, was brought to me, 
and a few others were at the same time procured there. Three of 
these were in different states of plumage, as it were in that of the 
first, second, and third year, the last almost perfect, but the red 
throat-mark not quite 'made out/ — the adult plumage is much 
the rarest state in which the species is obtained. I have often re- 
marked that one of these birds is seldom seen without a second 
being near, and although each individual requires a certain range 
of sea to itself, several may sometimes be observed at one view. 
On November the 11th, 1839, about twelve thus came under my 
notice in the last-named locality. They are very interesting birds. 
An imaginative writer like Buffon might fancy them exhibiting a 
guilty aspect, and, through a consciousness of their evil ways, 
concealing under water the whole body, except the mere line of 
back, their eye being at the same time bent wildly on the spec- 
tator, while, as if to escape his observation, they keep repeatedly 
diving. 
I am unwilling to abbreviate the following observations of 
Mr. Poole, though they in part repeat what has just been stated. 
"The loons [Colymbus septentrionalis ] J wliich frequent Wex- 
ford harbour chiefly fish in pairs, though often more than two 
may be seen near together, but I have never observed one bird 
without a second being in sight. They swim at an amazing rate 
when aware of being objects of pursuit, though when first ap- 
proached they show but few r symptoms of timidity. When diving 
to escape, they merely come to the surface every two or three 
hundred yards to breathe. 1 never but once knew them to resort 
* Mr. R. Warren, jun. t Mr. R. Chute. 
| The name of loon, or loom, is applied both to the great northern and the red- 
throated diver in Cork harbour. — Mr. R. Warren, jun. 
