142 RED-THROATED DIVER. 
pools on low islands in the sea, the margins of inland lakes, 
and islets in them, and watery places on higher grounds. 
The nest is nothing more than a few rushes or blades and 
stalks of grass, with leaves and moss, mixed, Selby says, with 
the down of the bird. It is placed among the stones or 
gravel close to the water’s edge, so that if need be, the bird 
ean slide at once into its all but native, and at all times 
natural and congenial element. 
The eggs are two in number, and equally rounded at both 
ends. They are of a dull brownish green colour, rather thickly 
spotted with dark brown. 
Male; weight, nearly three pounds; length, two feet and a 
quarter, or a little over; bill, dark bluish horn-colour; the 
upper mandible is straight, the lower one somewhat angular 
in outline; iris, red; head on the sides and crown, the latter 
the darkest, and neck on the sides, bluish grey, variegated 
with paler spots’ and lines; neck on the back, and nape, 
almost black, but marked with short lines of white, which 
give these parts a striated appearance; chin, grey, also 
variegated with paler spots and lines. The throat has an 
angular-shaped dark red, or reddish brown patch, the base of 
the angle lowermost, the apex upwards; breast, white, the 
flanks greyish black, the centres of the feathers darker; back, 
very dark brown, nearly black, spotted with white, each 
feather having a paler margin. The wings reach, when ex- 
tended, to the width of three feet five inches; greater and 
lesser wing coverts, nearly black, spotted with white; prima- 
ries, black. The tail, dark blackish brown, the tip white; 
under tail coverts, white; lees and toes, dark brownish green 
in front, the former paler behind, and tinged with purple 
blue; webs, dark brown. 
In the autumn, and also it would appear in the spring, 
the slate-coloured plumage on the sides of the head, chin, 
and sides of the neck, as likewise the red plumage on the 
front of the throat, is interspersed with the white feathers; 
the feathers on the back ave also a mixture of the old 
brownish grey ones, and the new ones of a blackish grey, 
with an oblong white spot on each side of the tip of the 
feather. 
It seems, in fact, that this species is subject to two moults 
in the year, for it is unquestionable that in some instances 
the red throat is characteristic of the winter, as well as of 
the summer plumage; on the other hand, so very many more 
