ELACK-THROATED DIVER. 299 



a "beautiful modulated whistle," which she concluded was 

 the love-call ; others describe a conversational chatter and a 

 yelping cr}\ 



The nest (Plate 127), for convenience, is close to water, for 

 the bird cannot really walk ; it shuffles on its tarsi and toes, 

 raising its body and throwing it forward an inch or two at a 

 time. Yet if chased on land it can travel fast in a series of 

 quadrupedal bounds, making use of the wings as hands. The 

 eggs (Plate 136), two as a rule, are laid in a simple depression, 

 usually without nesting material. They are dark brown or 

 olive, sparsely spotted with black and brown. The nestling 

 has long, sooty brown down, and like the young grebe is 

 frequently carried on the back of the parent bird. 



Summer plumage often shows in March, and on April 21st I 

 have seen the bird in full dress, but Mr. Jones saw one on the 

 30th of that month with black throat, white collar, and grey 

 head, but with a brown back devoid of white bars. Saunders 

 states that *' by the middle of September the autumnal moult is 

 completed," but this is by no means always the case ; I 

 examined a bird in full dress which had been killed on 

 October i6th. FuU-plumaged birds are not uncommon on 

 both spring and autumn migration. In summer the crown and 

 nape are bluish grey, the cheeks sooty, and the chin black ; 

 below the chin is an evenly striped black and white cravat, 

 and below that the black throat, showing a purple or green 

 sheen according to position. On either side of the neck are 

 black and white wavy lines, and the blacks extend to the sides of 

 the breast as a series of lines or dashes. The back, scapulars, 

 and wings are blue-black ; on the scapulars are rows of 

 rectangular white spots, forming distinct broad bars ; on the 

 coverts are a few round white spots. The abdomen is white. 

 The strong bill is black, pinkish at the angle of the gape and 

 on the lower mandible ; the legs are black, sooty on the webs ; 

 the irides are crimson. In winter the head and upper parts 



