436 THE DIVERS 



exchanged for the more resplendent livery, new black and white feathers making 

 their appearance almost immediately after the autumn moult. The juvenile dress 

 differs from that of the adult in winter in having the white of the fore-neck 

 freckled with brown, and the scapular feathers more rounded at the ends. The 

 beak is also shorter. The downy nestling is of a deep sooty brown, paler on the 

 fore-neck, the breast white, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. This fine species is only a winter visitor to the British Isles, 

 and its nearest breeding-ground is Iceland, where it is not uncommon, one or two 

 pairs nesting on most of the larger lakes. It has no other European breeding 

 station, but nests in Greenland up to about 70 on the east and west sides, and in 

 N. America inhabits not only the Arctic coasts and the larger lakes of Canada, 

 but ranges down the east coast south to the northern United States and Maine, 

 while westward it ranges to Great Slave Lake and Alaska. During the winter 

 months it occurs off the coasts of Norway, and has once been recorded from the 

 Baltic, while it is not uncommon on the Atlantic coasts of Europe, ranging south 

 to the Azores and Madeira. It has also occurred in the Mediterranean (Algeria, 

 Sardinia, Italy, etc.), and on inland waters in Bohemia and Transylvania, as well 

 as the Black Sea ; while American birds migrate south to Mexico and California. 

 [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor and bird of passage to our area, but " seldom 

 long absent " from the north of Scotland, and sometimes recorded in June on the 

 west of that country (cf. Saunders, III. Man. British Birds, 2nd ed., 1895, p. 709), and 

 it may arrive as early as 12th July, although more normally not till 16th September 

 (cf. Clarke, Studies in Bird Migration, 1912, p. 162). On the Yorkshire coast it is 

 of regular but not common occurrence from September to April or May, but it is 

 a rare and irregular visitor to Kent (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 732 ; and 

 Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 536). It is only an occasional visitor to Dumfries- 

 shire, but not uncommon in North Wales (cf. Gladstone, B. of Dumfries., 1910, 

 p. 454 ; and Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, 1907, p. 404). To the Irish coasts, 

 especially those of the north and west, it is a regular visitor from October to April 

 or May (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 371). That immature 

 birds are everywhere more frequently reported than adults is doubtless largely due 

 to the fact that the former come closer inshore and into the estuaries, and are also 

 more easily approached and shot (cf. Saunders, loc. cit.}. At the migration season 

 examples are not infrequently reported from inland waters. Not gregarious as 

 a rule, although several may often be seen on the same fishing-ground ; but in 



