GREAT NORTHEEN DIVER. 103 



the irides red ; head, cheeks, and back of the neck black, 

 the first with some tints of rich brown, green, and blue; the 

 back also black, but most of the feathers ornamented with 

 spots of white upon the black, those on the back with small 

 square-shaped spots, the scapulars and tertials with larger 

 white spots, which are also square, one on each side the 

 shaft of the feather, forming transverse lines, the tertials 

 also ending in white ; on the wing-coverts, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts the white spots are small ; primaries and tail- 

 feathers uniformly black without spots ; chin and neck in 

 front deep black, varied with two bands of white, spotted 

 with black ; from these marks this species is sometimes 

 called the Ring-necked Diver ; lower part of the neck in 

 front white, with short longitudinal stripes of black upon 

 white on the sides ; breast and under surface of the body 

 white ; sides under the wing and the flanks greyish- white ; 

 axillaries white with brown central streaks ; legs, toes, and 

 their membranes nearly black on the outside, lighter on the 

 inner side. 



The whole length is from thirty to thirty-three inches. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing thirteen inches 

 and three-quarters to fourteen inches. Males have been 

 taken weighing eleven and even twelve pounds, but the 

 females are much smaller. 



At the autumn moult the adults appear to lose their black 

 throat-bands for a time, although it seems probable that in 

 vigorous mature birds these ornaments are reassumed at an 

 early date. Mr. Gatcombe once examined an adult Northern 

 Diver in the middle of winter, the markings on the back 

 and scapulars of which formed spots similar to those of 

 summer, but were rather obscure and of an ash-grey in- 

 stead of white, and not wavy like those of an immature 

 bird, which fact leads him to suppose that it may be the 

 true adult winter plumage of this species. A bird shot at 

 Exmouth on the 9th of December is described by Mr. Cecil 

 Smith (' B. Somersetshire,' p. 540) as having the throat 

 white with the black encroaching and nearly joining in front 

 towards the bottom ; the feathers of the back and scapulars 



