440 THE DIVERS 



food ! In South Finland Jagerskjold states that the chief food consists of crabs 

 (? crayfish). Curiously enough St. John, who killed many in Scotland, only found 

 a fresh-water leech and other similar animals in their stomachs, and believed them 

 to feed on Mollusca rather than fish. The young are tended and fed assiduously 

 by both parents (R. Dann). [F. c. R. J.] 



RE DTHRO A TED-DIVER \Gdvia stelldta (Pontoppidan) ; Colymbus 

 sept&ntriondlis Linnaeus. Sprat-bar or loon, little naak ; herring-bar (Kent) ; 

 herring-bone, wabble (Devon) ; lion (Northumberland) ; loom (Orkneys) ; 

 rain-goose (Shetlands and Hebrides) ; galrush (Ireland). French, plongeon 

 cat-marin ; German, Nord-Seetaucher ; Italian, strolaga minore]. 



I. Description. The redthroated-diver is at once distinguishable in its 

 nuptial dress by the large patch of red on the throat, and in its " winter " garb 

 by the white speckled pattern on the back. The sexes are alike. (PL 178.) Length 

 24 in. [355 mm.]. In the nuptial dress the head and neck are of a bluish grey, 

 relieved on the crown by blackish mottlings, along the hind-neck by alternate 

 streaks of black and white, and on the fore-neck by a large triangular patch of vinous 

 chesnut. The back and wings are of an ash-brown with an oil-green gloss, and the 

 flanks are greyish black. The breast and abdomen are white. The iris is dark 

 brown ; the legs and toes greenish black. At the autumn moult the red on the 

 throat, and the characteristic black and white streaks down the hind-neck, are 

 discarded. The upper parts assume a slaty grey hue, and the feathers of the 

 back and wing-coverts are marked by small elongated paired spots, while the top 

 of the head and hind-neck are mottled with white. The sides of the head, fore- 

 neck, and under parts are white, save the flanks, which are coloured like the back, 

 but unspotted. The juvenile dress differs from that of the adult in winter chiefly 

 in the feathers of the back and wing-coverts, which are edged instead of spotted with 

 white, in having the forehead, crown, and hind-neck brownish slate, and the feathers 

 of the fore-neck tipped with brown, giving a mottled appearance. The downy 

 t young is of a sooty brown colour, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles this species is more numerous than 

 the blackthroated, and breeds in Scotland in varying numbers from various localities 

 in the Argyll area and South Inverness northward. It is perhaps most plentiful 

 in Caithness and E. Sutherland, and also breeds in most of the Hebrides, as well 

 as in the Orkneys and Shetlands. In Ireland it is only known to breed in one 



