539 



THE EED-THROATED DIVER. 



COLYMBUS SEPTENTRIONALIS. 



Bill slightly curved upwards, with the edges of both mandibles much incurved, 

 not exceeding three inches in length ; head, throat, and sides of the neck 

 mouse-colour ; crown spotted with black ; neck both above and below marked 

 Avith white and black lines ; on the front of the neck a large orange-coloured 

 patch ; back dusky brown ; lower parts white. Young oirds — Upper plumage 

 mouse-colour, darker on the back, where it is marked by longitudinal white 

 lines ; wings dusky ; feathers on the flanks dusky, some of them edged with 

 white ; all the under plumage pure white. Length twenty-six inches. Eggs 

 chestnut-brown, spotted with darker brown. 



The name " Loon," given in some districts to the Crested 

 Grebe, is elsewhere given to the Red-Throated Diver. 

 The term is an old one, for our countrymen, Raj and 

 Willughby, quoting yet more ancient authorities, describe 

 the ISTorthern Diver under the name of " Loon," and the 

 Black -Throated Diver under that of " Lumme," the latter 

 being the name of the bird in Iceland and ISTorway, and 

 the former probably an English corruption of the same 

 word, which in the original signifies "lame." 



On no part of our coast must we expect to hear this 

 bird popularly called by the name of " Red-Throated," 

 for, though common on many parts of, the coast, almost 

 all the specimens observed are young birds of the 

 year, which have the throat pure white. Several were 

 brought to me by the sea-side gunners on the coast of 

 ^NTorfolk ; but I could not discover a tinge of red on 

 one of them. A writer in the Zoologist* says that they 

 are very numerous in winter off the coast of the Isle 

 of AYight, passing and repassing in small flocks, and in 

 two lines about a mile apart. Of the hundreds which fell 



* Vol. iii. p. 974. 



