RED-THROATED DIVER. 839 



there you have the mortification to find the object of your 

 search is on the side exactly opposite to you." Mr. Hewit- 

 son, when on the west coast of Norway, saw this species 

 often, upon ahuost every piece of water, and frequently heard 

 their loud singular scream in an evening at a great distance. 

 My friend, Richard Dann, Esq., sent me the following note : 

 " This Diver is far more common here than the Black- 

 throated. On the west coast of Norway it is very abundant 

 from the Naze to the North Cape. In the Lapland Alps, 

 in theDofre Fiell, and in the interior of Sweden, it is equally 

 numerous. In August, 1838, I saw on the great Tornea 

 Lake, the source of the Tornea river, thirty in a flock, and 

 all old birds. Although so common, it is rarely one sees 

 the young before they are able to fly ; their habits and mode 

 of feeding their young are similar to those of the Black- 

 throated Diver. Their cries are very mournful and melan- 

 choly. During the breeding-season, while on the wing, they 

 utter frequently a sound like the word, kakera, kakera, by 

 which name they are called in many parts of Scandinavia. 

 The red neck disappears in the winter, a darker hue only 

 marking the space occupied by the red. The eggs are of a 

 dirty greenish hue." The eggs of this bird in my own col- 

 lection measure two inches eight lines in length, by one inch 

 ten lines in breadth ; of a dark greenish-brown when fresh 

 laid, rather thickly spotted with dark umber-brown ; but the 

 ground colour changes a little and assumes a chestnut, or dark 

 reddish-brown tint when the egg has been long incubated. 



It will thus be seen that in its habits and food this species 

 very closely resembles the other two already described. It 

 is found at the Faroe Islands and at Iceland. At the latter 

 place Mr. Proctor saw small flocks of twenty or twenty-five 

 together, but not a White-throated bird among them. Mr. 

 Proctor suspected they were all old males ; the females were 

 then engaged in incubation. The Red- throated Diver has 



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