COLYMBID. 543 
According to Meyer’s plate, the eggs are olive- 
brown, thinly speckled with much darker brown. 
ReEDTHROATED Diver, Colymbus septentrionalis. 
I am afraid I cannot record more than one speci- 
men of the Redthroated Diver as having occurred 
in Somersetshire, and that a dead one: it was picked 
up quite fresh close by a small pond at Bishop’s 
Hull, near Taunton, on the 29th of March, 1868, 
and brought to Mr. Bidgood, the curator of the 
Museum, who stuffed it, and has it now in his own 
collection: it must have been passing over the land 
from one channel to the other, either to avoid bad 
weather and a lee-shore or else on the commence- 
ment of its migratory journey, and probably from 
weariness pitched on the land, from which it was 
unable to rise again; nor could it in all probability 
make its way on foot to the small pond it was near, 
which might have given it a chance of recovery, and 
perhaps a feed of fish, if it could have reached it. 
This bird is much more common on both coasts 
of Devon, where it is called the “ Lune,” ‘ Loon” or 
“‘Sprat Loon,” and sometimes the “Speckled Diver.” 
It appears rather odd that neither this bird nor the 
Great Northern Diver frequent our part of the 
Bristol Channel, as they are not uncommon on the 
north coast of Devon and on the other side off 
Swansea—probably they stop short at the muddy 
water; certainly it would occasionally rather puzzle 
them to see their prey in some parts of our channel, 
BAR 
