298 
WILD NORWAY. 
early in April and nesting before end of month. Later 
in north. Eggs four to six, rarely seven. Departs end 
of September. 
Bean and Lesser White-fronted Geese (A. erythrojnts) 
—breed exclusively in the far north. M. caught three 
goslings of latter, and shot old goose, June 30th—Lap- 
land. All other species are solely migrants ; the Brents 
passing north along the coast very regularly during 
the penultimate days of May, to nest in Spitsbergen. 
Wild Swan (Whooper)—said to breed on highland 
lakes, Finmark. 
Black-throated Diver—on islets of higher fj eld-lakes, 
June 20th—eggs two. 
Red-throated Diver—on islets of lower fjeld, same 
date—eggs two : in both cases, close to water-level. 
Note that both divers and grebes are exclusively 
aquatic—never terrestrial. The grebes, in particular, 
both live afloat and nest afloat, their nests being built 
in water often ten feet deep. The divers are also 
purely aquatic in habit, never even allowing themselves 
to be left stranded by the ebb; while their nests are 
on the mossy foreshore of lake-edge or islet, within a 
few inches of water-level. To these nests the divers 
scramble up the few intervening feet, by pushing along 
on their breasts, seal-fashion. They never attempt to 
walk, or to assume erect positions, simply because they 
can’t—the osteological formation of their feet forbids 
this. Hence it follows that all the hundreds of divers 
stuffed in museums, or depicted in books as sitting 
upright, perched on rocks, etc., are physical impossi¬ 
bilities—atrocities that ought at once to be removed. 
Great Skua—rare and not known to breed. 
