GREAT NORTHERN DIVER . — Colymbus glacidlis. 
The Great Northern Diver is found on the northern British coasts, and may 
be seen disporting itself in the water with astonishing activity. 
Perhaps there is no bird which excels the Northern Diver in its powers of 
swimming, although the penguins and cormorants are equally notable in that 
respect. Its broad webbed feet are set so very far back that the bird cannot 
walk properly, but tumbles and scrambles along much after the fashion of a seal, 
pushing itself with its feet, and scraping its breast on the ground. In the 
water, however, it is quite at its ease, and, like the seal, no sooner reaches the 
familiar element, than it dives away at full speed, twisting and turning under the 
surface as if in the exuberance of happy spirits. So swiftly can it glide through 
the water, that it can chase and capture the agile fish in their own element. 
The eggs of the Northern Diver are generally two in number, and of a dark 
olive-brown, spotted sparingly with brown of another tone. 
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