110 COLYMBID^. 



out of shot. On the approach of winter the old bh'ds retire 

 to the west coast of Norway. They make their appearance 

 in the southern parts but rarely. The young birds, however, 

 migrate in considerable numbers to more temperate climes, 

 and are found at that period in the open parts of the Baltic, 

 in the Elbe, and on the coast of Holland." 



Vast numbers of the Black-throated Diver are bred in 

 Finland and Russia, and nests have been found on the 

 German shores of the Baltic. On migration this species 

 visits the coasts and inland waters of the Continent down to 

 the Mediterranean, but south of the Alps it is by far the rarest 

 of the family. Eastward it is found breeding across Northern 

 Siberia to the Amoor, and in wdnter it is common in Japan. 

 On the other side of the Pacific — where the birds are on the 

 average rather smaller than European examples, and have 

 consequently been distinguished by some American ornitho- 

 logists under the name of G. pacijicus — this Diver is gene- 

 rally distributed throughout the Fur countries to Hudson's 

 Bay, on the shores of which it is common. Parry brought 

 home specimens from Melville Peninsula ; and Richardson 

 says that the skins of this and the other species of Divers, 

 being tough and impervious to w^et, are used by the Indians 

 and Esquimaux as an article of dress. Audubon states that 

 it does not breed in Labrador, but that young birds are found 

 in Texas from winter to April, the lines of migration follow- 

 ing the course of the great rivers, as well as the coast. 



In the adult bird, the beak is dark bluish-black ; the upper 

 mandible rather more decurved and the under one straighter 

 than in the Great Northern Diver ; the irides red ; forehead 

 dark grey, top of the head, and back of the neck light ash- 

 grey ; back, rump, and tail-feathers nearly black ; inter- 

 scapular and tertial feathers with a square patch of white on 

 each side of the shaft, forming a series of transverse bars ; 

 wing- coverts black, with a few specks of white; primary 

 quill-feathers black ; chin and throat black, divided by a half 

 collar of short white lines; sides and bottom of the neck 

 streaked longitudinally with black and white lines ; breast, 

 belly, and all the under surface of the body, pure white ; 



