354 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



It is, in my opinion, one of the grandest of all 

 our British birds. In length it averages from 

 thirty to thirty-three inches. Its plumage in 

 winter is brownish-black above, spotted with 

 white; the under parts white; the eye red. In 

 spring the head and neck are purple-black, two 

 broad black bands encircling the neck, the inter- 

 mediate portion of the neck being black with 

 longitudinal white streaks. 



The red-throated diver is almost entirely 

 confined to Scotland and the North-west of 

 Ireland, frequenting the lochs, rivers, and their 

 tideways. It is the smallest of the British 

 divers, measuring but from twenty-one to twenty- 

 three inches. Dixon remarks of this bird : ' When 

 alarmed it gradually sinks itself lower and lower 

 into the water, until almost every part but the 

 head is concealed below the surface. ... Its wild, 

 unearthly cry, like a human being in pain, startles 

 the naturalist, especially at dusk, as it sounds 

 loudly over the water in these wild mountain 

 solitudes. Particularly vociferous does this bird 

 become at the approach of rain.' In some dis- 

 tricts the red-throated diver is called the ' rain 

 goose,' on account of its clamouring in the 

 manner above stated. Like all birds of this 

 class, it is ungainly when on land, but especially 

 graceful when swimming about. In spring the 

 throat is gray, the lower portion of it being of a 

 chestnut colour ; the under parts white ; the back 

 of the neck streaked with black and white ; the 



