I20 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



sidered to be a distinct species, is merely the Great 

 Northern Diver in immature phimage. 



BLACK-THROATED DIVER. Colymhus ardicus, L. 



Yarrell, iv. p. 105; Harting, p. 69; Dresser, viii. p. 615; 

 Seeholim, iii. p. 407 ; Ibis List, p. 201. 



The Black -Throated Diver, although the least 

 common of the Divers in point of numbers, appears 

 almost every winter at Weymouth and Poole, but 

 rarely in the breeding plumage. I have notes of its 

 occurrence also at Charmouth, and in Studland Bay. 

 Four were shot at Poole during the winter of 1883, 

 one of which had the black throat well developed. 



RED-THROATED DIVER. Cohjmhus septentrionalis, L. 



Yarrell, iv. p. 112; Harting, p. 69; Dresser, viii. p. 621; 

 Seeholim, iii. p. 412; Ibis List, p. 202; Pulteney's IJst, 

 p. 17. 



A common winter visitant along the coast. It 

 is known as the " Sprat Loon," from the fact of 

 its accompanying or following the shoals of Sprats 

 in October. Pulteney mentions one shot at Wey- 

 mouth after a storm in 1795, and Colonel Hawker 

 notices the species as occurring in Dorsetshire. One 

 with the red throat well developed was picked up 

 dead in a ride of Clenston Wood, Whatcombe, seven- 

 teen miles from the sea, in the winter of 1873, after 

 a gale ; and another, in breeding plumage, was shot 

 in Studland Bay, September 22, 1877. Mr. Pike 

 states that it is always possible to procure a specimen 



