248 GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. RED-THROATED DIVER. 



Order— PYGOPODES. 



Family— COLYMBID^. 



Genus— COLYMBUS. 



COLYMBUS GLACIALIS— Great Northern Diver. 



This magnificent bird rarely visits the county, but there are 

 some recorded instances of its coming, storm-driven. Mr. W. C. 

 Blake, of Ross, says, " About the year, 1867, a female specimen 

 was shot on the Wye, immediately opposite Ross, by Mr. John 

 Poole. I had the pleasure of seeing it in 1883." The two 

 specimens in the Hereford Museum were obtained — one from the 

 river Wye, at Clifford, near Hay ; the other, from Llangorse Lake, 

 in the adjoining county of Brecon, but only five or six miles over 

 the Herefordshire border. 



[CoLYMBUs arcticus — Black-throatcd Diver.] 

 A somewhat rare straggler to the British coasts. 



COLYMBUS SEPTENTRIONALIS— Red-throated Diver. 



The Red-throated Diver breeds in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, 

 and Spitzbergen, and even north of the latter, Parry met with it as 

 far as he went on his boat-voyage. It visits the coasts of the British 

 Islands from autumn to sj^ring, but it is not common in the inland 

 counties. Its presence in Herefordshire has several times been 

 recorded ; a specimen was caught on the ice, in the river Wye, 

 near Ross, in the winter of 1854 — 5; and two others were shot 

 on the Weir Cliff stream, in the severe winter of 1879 — 80; all 

 three birds are in the Hereford Museum. Mr. W. C. Blake, of 

 Ross, states that " a Red-throated Diver was seen on March 5 th, 

 1884, floating down the Wye on a mass of drift," and he also gives 

 the following recent occurrence — "on November 17th, 1887, a 

 Red-throated Diver was killed on the Wye, in the parish of Sellack. 



