178 
aixen’s naturalist’s library. 
Mr. Chapman proceeds “ I do not believe that Divers or 
Grebes ever go ashore at any time of the year. Some of them 
scuffle on their breasts for a few yards to their nests, which 
are never many feet from the water, not further than to avoid 
generally at, or in, it ; but this is just a 
Seal -like progression, all legs and wings going, when the bird 
is alarmed at the nest; and the track to and fro is plainly 
visible. _ Beyond thus merely landing on some flat lake-shore 
or low islet, I never in my life saw either Grebe or Diver 
ashore, and never upright, or otherwise than absolutely hori- 
zontal. Irue, tn the water, when swimming, they do sit upriaht 
to flap or ‘ yowl,’ but never on land, because they caniiot. 
I hey never go ashore to preen or dry themselves, in the 
warm sun, on sand-banks ; they do all that afloat, and their 
whole lives are spent afloat, though I have once or twice seen 
Ked-throated Divers alongside the edge of a sandbank— but 
Still quite adoat, and, of course, horizontal. They never let 
the tide ebb away and leave them dry, as Swans, Geese, and 
Game-Ducks always do, and even Diving-Ducks, as Scaup and 
Golden-eye, occasionally, but very rarely, do.” 
THE TRUE DIVERS. GENUS COLYMBUS. 
Colymhus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 220 (1766). 
Type, probably C. glacialis (Linn.). 
The characters of the genus are those of the Order Colymbi- 
formes, and of the single Family Colymbida. 
The Divers are al( birds of the Northern Palieartic and 
Nearctic Regions, coming a little to the southward in winter. 
Their general habits have been sketched in Mr. Abel Chap- 
man’s note given above. ^ 
I. THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. 
Colymbus ylacialis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 221 (1766); Macgill. 
J' P’ (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p, 609, 
pi. 626 (i88o); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 201 (1882)- 
Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iv. p. 96 (1884) ; Seebohm' 
Hist. Bnt. B. iii p. 402 (1885) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. B. 
p. 693 (18S9); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxv. (1893). 
