698 BLACK-THROATED DIVER. 



Several of the lochs of Inverness-shire, Perthshire, Ross, and Argyll, 

 as well as many in the Outer Hebrides, afford congenial summer- 

 quarters, and Mr. T. E. Buckley observed birds during May, June 

 and July on some of the lakes of Rousay, in the Orkneys ; this 

 species has not, however, been identified in the Shetlands at any 

 season. 



In winter the Black-throated Diver has been met with on the 

 coasts and inland waters of the Continent down to the Mediter- 

 ranean, though it is decidedly rare south of the German side of 

 the Baltic, where it breeds. Northward and eastward it is very 

 abundant in summer on the lakes of Scandinavia, Finland and 

 Russia ; while it ranges across Siberia to the Pacific, and visits 

 Japan in winter. The bird which predominates in Alaska and 

 California is considered to have passed the "incipient stage" by 

 the authors of ' The Water-birds of North America,' who distinguish 

 it specifically as Urinator pacificus ; though they admit that our 

 C. ardicus is also found in Alaska and throughout the Fur countries 

 to Hudson Bay. It is known to range northwards to Melville 

 Peninsula, and southward to Lake Michigan in winter ; but it has 

 not yet been proved to occur in Greenland or Iceland, and there is 

 a doubt as regards Spitsbergen. 



In Scotland the margin of a green island in some fresh-water 

 loch is almost invariably selected ; the eggs, 2 in number, being laid 

 in May, on the bare soil or on some crushed vegetable matter ; 

 they vary in colour from olive- to russet-brown, with sparse spots of 

 black or umber : average measurements 3 by 2 in. In the Petchora 

 district Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown found a large floating 

 nest, partially supported by aquatic plants. The cry is loud and 

 discordant, the flight is said to be unusually rapid, and the food 

 consists chiefly of fish. 



The adult in summer has the crown and hind-neck ash-grey ; 

 upper parts nearly black, barred and spotted with white ; chin and 

 throat purplish-black, with an intermediate half-collar of short white 

 streaks ; sides of the neck striped with black and white; under parts 

 white ; bill black ; irides red ; legs and feet brown. Length about 

 26 in. ; wing 11*5 in. Females are but slightly smaller than males, 

 and both sexes, when mature, have black throats. The young bird 

 has the hind-neck of a much purer grey than in the immature 

 Northern Diver, which it otherwise resembles in its general plumage; 

 it is, however, decidedly smaller. 



