240 



GREBES AND DIVERS 



Red-throated Diver ^^ ^^ ^. '"^"^^ '"^r regret, as being liable to lead to 

 (Colvmbus confusion, that while the largest representative of 

 septentrionalis). ^^'^ present group is known as the northern diver, 

 the Latin title of the smallest species should be a 

 translation of that name. This smallest and last British representative 

 of the group is the red-throated diver, a species not much exceeding a 

 couple of feet in length and not weighing more than about 4.^ lbs." 

 It derives its popular designation from the presence in the summer- 

 dress of a large triangular patch of bright chestnut on the front of the 



neck. When in this sum- 

 mer-livery the bird has 

 the crown of the head, 

 the cheeks, and the sides 

 of the neck uniformly- 

 slaty grey ; the najjc and 

 the rest of the back of the 

 neck, as well as the sides 

 of the base of the latter, 

 black glossed with green 

 and streaked with distinct 

 white lines ; the rest of 

 the plumage of the upper- 

 parts and flanks being 

 dusky, and that of the 

 lower surface of the body 

 white. With the assump- 

 tion of the winter-livery 

 the upper -parts become 

 dull slaty grey thickly speckled with white, and the fore part of the neck 

 turns white like the under surface of the body. With the e.\ce[)tion that 

 the feathers of the back and wings show white edges rather than white 

 spots, the plumage of birds of the year is like that of the adults in 

 winter. Sooty brown is the prevalent tint of the down of the chick, 

 although this becomes somewhat paler on the lower side of the bod)-. 



The breeding-range of the red-throated diver includes the northern 

 portions of both hemispheres up to about latitude 82 , and extends to 

 the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and the northern districts of the 

 Scotch mainland as far as Argyllshire, together with one district in the 

 north of Ireland, where, however, incessant persecution seems to have 

 made the birds forsake the locality as a nesting-resort in the year 1896. 

 On its southern winter-migration this species visits the greater portion 



MOUNTCO IN THE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



KED-THKOATKU DIVKK. 



