196 
GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
brim, Temm. — Northern or Great Northern Diver 
of British authors .■ — ( Tmmer or Imber Diver, the 
young). — This very handsome bird occurs on the 
shores of England, during winter, in a manner 
similar to the bird last described, hut less frequently ; 
and upon all the British or Irish coasts it is much 
more rare. In the range of our own excursions, we 
have seen it in spring more plentiful in the Firth 
of Forth than elsewhere, frequenting the vicinity 
of the oyster- scalps, and there well known to the 
fishermen from its loud and monotonous call.* We 
have never been able to come up with this bird on 
the water, and all the exertions of our rowers could 
. not gain ®ue yard upon it ; hut it is sometimes 
taken in nets and at set lines. In the north of Scot- 
land and the Orkney and Shetland Isles it dis- 
appears in full plumage in June, and in none of the 
excursions which have within these few years been 
made there have the nest or eggs been discovered. 
We saw a pair on the coast of Sutherland in the 
month of June in their perfect dress; these might 
have been incubating on some of the adjacent islands, 
as it was at least a fortnight after we had procured 
the young of the Black-throated Diver in the op- 
posite side of the county ; at the same time, they 
were the only birds we saw in many suitable locali- 
ties. The north of Europe docs not even serve it 
for a breeding-ground ; all those gentlemen, to whose 
* The Laplanders believe, that if a person hear the cry of 
any of the divers in tjie spring, and while fasting, the milk 
from his flocks will not curdle for the whole year. Lcemius. 
