COLVMBID.-E. 



697 



i;*>- 



THE BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



CoLVMBUS ARCTicus, Linnccus. 



The Black-throated Diver is by far tlie rarest of the three 

 species which annually visit the coasts of England in winter; and 

 the examples obtained generally prove to be immature birds, 

 although adults are sometimes met with as far south as the Chan- 

 nel, and westward to the estuary of the Dart in Devon. Few 

 occurrences are known in Ireland at any season, though two birds 

 with full black throats have been recorded as late as the month of 

 April by Mr. R. Warren from the mouth of the Moy, and by Mr. L. 

 Patterson from the neighbourhood of Belfast. In Scotland, as long 

 ago as 1834 this Diver was shown by Jardine and Selby to be a 

 breeding-species in Sutherland, where it is now known to be plentiful, 

 especially in the north-west ; while a pair of birds — with their nest 

 cut out from the soil — procured in Caithness by Col. L. H. L. Irby 

 and Capt. S. G. Reid, fill an attractive case in the British Museum. 



