Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/417

Rh seized it, and on examination, I found the blood flow very fast from a flesh wound in the head, but there was some dry clotted blood on its wings and side; whence I concluded that a hawk had singled out my wounded bird as the object of his prey, and had struck it down the instant that my approach had obliged the birds to rise on the wing; but the space between the hedges was so small, and the motion of the birds so instantaneous and quick, that I could not distinctly observe the operation.—.

(Colymbus glacialis).

GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON.

As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer Forest from Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis, Linn., the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently described in Willughby's Ornithology.