GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 199 



These three specimens were obtained from Orkney, 

 and it is curious that in the bird last described the 

 spotted feathers on the back and wings had the 

 white spots gradually wearing out by the barbs of 

 the feathers breaking off, which would soon leave 

 the back of a uniform dark colour. This will be 

 understood from the wood-cut at the end of the de- 

 scription, and altogether we do not think that the 

 seasonal change of the divers is yet rightly under- 

 stood. The adult male, in spring, or at the com- 

 mencement of breeding, is a remarkably handsome 

 bird, and we give Mr. Selby's description, taken 

 from one of the finest specimens we have seen in 

 in our own collection, procured in spring, in the 

 Firth of Forth ; we were unable- to ascertain how 

 the bird had been killed, but scarcely a feather was 

 wanting or out of its place : " Bill black, paler 

 towards the tip, nearly three-quarters of an inch 

 long, much compressed, tapering, the upper man- 

 dible gently arched, the lower one channelled be- 

 neath and deepest in the middle, the angle sloping 

 gradually upwards to the point ; tomia of both man- 

 dibles inflected ; head and neck black, glossed with 

 purplish green ; transverse bar upon the throat, 

 middle neck, collar, and sides of the upper part of 

 the breast, black, the feathers having raised white 

 margins, which give these parts a striated appear- 

 ance ; the whole of the upper plumage glossy black, 

 each feather having two pure white spots (see wood- 

 cut next page) one on each side of the shaft near the 

 tip, forming rows; those upon the scapulars and 



